Switch-A-Roo
by Ink Child
Summary: She held the child in her arms, small, dark haired and glaring. He held the other child in his arms, trembling, blushing and terrified. Black eyes met white with twin panic. "You... you... you appeared in my room!" Hinata raised the child who glared at Sasuke with a frown and he sucked in a breath as he tried desperately to fathom staring at his five year old self.
1. Chapter 1

_**Okay.**_

 _ **I know.**_

 _ **I dunno guys. There's stuff in my head. It will all make it out- not always in the order we all want, believe me. This one... was really really aggressive today so I just.**_

 _ **Meh. Here it is.**_

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

 ** _Summary:_**

 ** _After the war there's marriages and alliances, work and farming and peace, love and babies._**

 ** _And time traveling toddlers appearing without explanation._**

* * *

 _ **Hinata**_

I woke to the feel of a petal soft nose on mine, and the sticky touch of itty bitty fingers on my cheek. They were gritty too, as though syrup had coated them before the sandbox had and the smell of woodland and pancakes tickled me as I began to address the incoming senses being stimulated.

My hands, still in the half wakefulness of sleep drifted from the covers on my futon to the edge of my pillow where my short sword lingered, although they hesitated to grasp the hilt.

The tiny fingers drifted from my cheek to the curve of my nose. Muddled half dreams of my belly swollen with a tiny kicking being inside and my ankles fat and the smell of soft newborn heads confused me long enough that when I opened my eyes it took me a minute to orient myself.

A pair of ebony black irises glimmered at me from the darkness at the edge of my bed, framed in a pale face with round chubby cheeks and a puckered mouth in a half pout of dislike and concentration.

It was so disorienting that for a moment I couldn't make sense of what my eyes were taking in, which frightened me. My eyes were an inherited miracle, the one part of my body that never failed to perform to everyone's expectations and so to distrust them made my heart pound. With a gasp I sat up in flurry of white sheets and blankets.

The child, for that is what it was now that I could make out all of it's shape shifted backwards rapidly at a half crouch, his stubby little fingers and dimpled elbows sticking out of his plain black shirt in the moonlight of my bedroom.

My mouth was agape. I tasted the air of midnight on my tongue before slowly lifting a hand to my lips, covering the permanent O of surprise on my face with my fingers.

"...who are you?" The child whispered, and his voice was small, making my heart hurt with his well veiled but still visible fear and his brave attempts to mask it.

I blinked my pale eyes at him several times, as though waiting for him to vanish like a haze of smoke into the black of my chambers but he lingered where he was, tense like a bow string about to kill.

I tried to speak, and no words came out, my throat taking a break from the conversation so as to give my brain more time to assess the situation further.

"You... you have Hyuuga eyes." His gaze fixed itself stonily on my face and I blinked again rapidly, wondering at the strangely familiar tilt of his jaw as he clenched it. The curve of his brows on his face holding the frown in place tickled something in my mind.

Those eyes I so trusted and that were so easily recognized fluttered over his little body, stopping at the embroidered white and red fan that decorated the right side of his black shirt.

I was confused. I must have hit my head. This could be a hallucination?

Slowly I lowered my fingers from my lips, not intending to speak but the word came out of my mouth anyway. "Uchiha."

Only, I had to be wrong. I had to be. The little boy glared at me in a way that said he recognized the word I had breathed into life between us, and he wasn't impressed with my assessment.

There were no Uchihas left, none. Or rather, just one. Just a single fan to build the Byakugan flame and...

He was my soon to be brother in law.

So then who...?

"Yeah, I'm Uchiha." The boy glared some more, hands tightening and loosening in equal measures as he studied me. He could not have been older than five, if that. A tremble rippled through his body despite his best attempt to remain calm. "I'm Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha."

I felt as my voice, so recently resurrected died within me again, my eyes widening some more at his words.

 _No. I'm dreaming._

 _I have to be dreaming._

But the way that he stood at my extended silence and the stubborn set of his little jaw gave me pause.

Without any other ideas for words I softly whispered. "I'm Hinata... Hinata Hyuuga." Then more soothingly, trying to calm my galloping heart beat I extended my hand to him. "You... you don't have to be afraid, I promise. I'm... confused that you are here. That... that's all."

In the light of the moon the tears in his eyes glimmered wet and pearl like as he stared and I felt a knot rise to my throat at his panic. Slowly I stood and watched as, like a frightened fawn he took a step back.

"...how are you here?" I whispered, more to myself than him, looking around my room for an open window or door and finding none. He looked around as well as though realizing that was a good question, and the overwhelming weight of what he was thinking seemed to seize his body with panic I could see start at his finger tips and scatter up his limbs shakily.

"I don't know." His eyes finally overflowed with a slow blink. Frustrated he wiped at the wetness on his face with the backs of his wrists. "I don't know."

I was out of the bed before the first sob wracked his body and carefully placing my hands on his shoulders while I crouched on the marble of my bedroom I peered at his face, trying to smile through the sleep and growing panic in my chest.

"It's okay... It's okay, I've got you."

Hands pressing to his eyes he cried, a silent terror eating away at him. I swallowed my own emotion down before gathering him in my arms and standing. He fit into the curve of my hip and along my body, his head laying on my shoulder and relaxing as the rest of his tears came tumbling out of him.

It was the middle of the night, the moon was high, and the house silent. I sat there rubbing his back at the edge of my futon watching the moon shift, still in disbelief until the sun began to pink the navy of the heavens. And it wasn't until the sun encroached on my sheets through the windows and finally touched on his bare toes hanging limp from my arms that I finally let the panic hit me.

I was sitting in my room, with a child in my arms who claimed to be Uchiha Sasuke. The same man engaged to marry my younger sister in less than a month.

"...Oh...God..." I let the sound slowly drift out of my mouth before looking towards the sun in growing confusion. I had trusted that when it rose he would disappear and I would wake hugging my pillow embarrassed by a strange dream. But no, the light had betrayed me. And sure enough, this scenario was by far more awkward than any strange dream I could have had.

A little shudder ran through the small body in my arms and I started, looking back down at the round cheek pressed to my collarbone and the dark hair that slid across his forehead. Streaks of salt drifted down the curve of his cheek and I closed my eyes.

Whatever was happening, this child had nothing to do with it. If there was one thing I knew was that he needed me. Carefully I untangled myself from his grip and slid him into my bed, tucking the blankets around the small shape before straightening and eyeing my door where a maid was going to try to waltz in to open my curtains, bring my breakfast and...make my bed.

My eyes strayed back to the snoozing toddler on said item of furniture and quickly I hatched a plan.

It would appear my lying skills were going to have to get significantly better and quickly in the next couple of minutes.

* * *

 _ **Sasuke**_

I nearly killed her. I could **not** believe that I nearly killed her.

Gasping I stared down at the child, because that's what she was. A child.

I had felt the presence of something, had realized there was an unfamiliar heat curling to my side, sensed soft breath at the nape of my neck and in less than five seconds had a blade to the throat of whatever was cozening up to me in my bed.

However, I had not been prepared for the toddler gaze that stared up at me in terror and confusion.

Her eyes were already overfilling with tears that reflected the moonlight at me from the single round window above my bed and I watched as heat roasted her cheeks to apple pink while my katana hovered over her pale throat.

"What...the fuck." I hissed and scrambled off the bed like I had been hit with a pound of chakra to the chest. My katana didn't lower, the glow of my Sharingan joined the glow of the moon and the child gasped burying her face into her hands with sobs that wracked her little body flat on my mattress.

Jutsu? My brain was scrambling. It was like heading into a knife fight only to find my opponent had tried to disarm me with a floppy wet fish- and even worse- it was working. I had no idea what was happening, and rapidly I slammed my katana back into it's sheath.

"Who are you?" I snapped, walking around the bed to reach the weepy thing that could simply not be where she was.

I was answered with more soft squashed sobs and impatiently I pressed my knee into the mattress, taking one tiny wrist in my hand to pull it away from her face only to have a terrified wet sound escape her. I realized _it_ was a _her_ the moment I took in the nighty, pink and ruffled at the bottom and the indigo hair splayed in the hime style around her face despite it's short length.

"Why are you here?" I asked again, without touching her this time. From between the fat stubby fingers I could see the pale white eyes overwhelmed with tears staring into me and the tinge of red from my gaze on her skin made me sigh sitting up and shutting down my Sharingan quickly.

"How did you even get in here?" I asked again impatiently and sat the child up despite the stiff limbs and back that protested against my grip. She was a waif, small in every way, breakable like a new baby bird fallen from the nest.

I pictured my bed wet with baby pee and reigned in some more of my frustration to ask quietly, softly.

"Look. No more red eyes." I blinked at her, assessing the feel of her chakra, the lack of composure on her tiny face and the infant smell. My Sharingan had detected no jutsus. Nothing.

Just...soap and the salt tang of a little girl's tears.

There was a child sitting on my bed sobbing into her hands. Delicately she rubbed at her face trying to wipe away her emotions and in the brief pause I caught the pale lavender tinge of the Hyuuga eye, making me wince.

I had a Hyuuga infant in my bed at night.

My limbs couldn't keep me where I sat and so I stood, taking several steps back until the entirety of the room was between her and myself. What the actual hell was happening? Was I being framed? Who would do something like kidnap a child from my soon to be in laws and bring them to my bed at night? Fury raged in my chest for a moment as I watched the baffled weeping of the obviously traumatized child.

Whoever did this was going to eat their spleen. I would make sure they did right before I took their head off with Chidori to the face.

I wasn't the pacing type, but I could feel the energy and tension like the start of a fight rotating through my body, the gears were turning. Slowly I raised my hands up into my hair and breathed in deeply, staring at her.

My lack of proximity seemed to appease her tears and she stared back through her fingers, hiccuping between breaths.

She was small, so small I had no idea how to gauge her age. Three? Six? Eight? Kids were simply not my forte and so I stared some more until she closed her eyes against my glare, whimpering and shivering at once.

Kids were really really not my forte.

"What's your name?" I said it as quietly as I could, trying to remember how you had to approach a beast before slaughtering it. Sharp movements, loud voices, aggressive eye contact aggravated the calm and so I lowered my dark eyes to the marble.

Her voice gurgled in her throat for a few seconds and through a rainfall of hiccups I managed to make out two names.

Two mind numbing impossible names.

"H-H-hinata H-Hyuuga."

I let out a long breath, letting my shoulder blades hit the wall of my room hard as I leaned there, stuffing my shaking hands into my pockets.

"No." I found myself saying, slowly as though talking to a disabled 80 year old senile dog. "No, Hinata Hyuuga is the daughter of the main house, she-"

"P-please don't hurt me." She whimpered and as her hands pressed to her streaming eyes I stopped, studying the way her cheeks flamed again.

It did seem...disturbingly familiar. I wasn't very well acquainted at all with my soon to be sister in law, but...

No. No.

This was not happening.

Activating my Sharingan again I scanned the room, searching for something, anything. I almost hoped Orochimaru would come crawling out of the woodwork like some blessed sanity.

As I turned in a full circle, searching for the threat that was obviously messing with my senses I head her sobbing still and stop, slowing to a steady if shaky breath and expecting the real enemy to crawl out of the baby skin I turned, body at the ready.

But she was still there, her arm over her face she was asleep or unconscious on my bed same as when she appeared. Her breaths were generally slow and easy except for the stuttering gasps that rankled her as payment for the tears.

Standing at the edge of the bed I studied her, tracing the little dimples on her tiny exposed knees and the insignificant pearl toes that lined her small feet with my gaze.

This was bad. This was worse than bad.

At best someone was trying to frame me for... what? Pedophilia? With a child from the most prestigious Clan in Konoha, and one soon to attach itself permanently to me.

And at worst?

I swallowed the rock that was sitting snug in my throat.

At worst...I had a miniature Hinata Hyuuga in my bed. And I had no idea how or why?

 _I've gone insane. It actually did happen._

The two possible worse scenarios were starting to look like they should switch places the more I thought about it.

Raising one hand to my face I pressed my fingers to the pressure point on my forehead hard, trying to dispel a quickly growing headache at the forefront of my face.

I stayed there, thinking and analyzing the short list of possible explanations for my predicament for so long that when I looked up again the first pink tendrils of sunlight were sneaking through the pie shaped glass of the circular window above the bed.

I watched, the way one watches a blade slide through an enemy the same calm and sickened feeling in my gut as the sun slid down the wall and across my floor, over the foot of my bed and onto the child's face.

When she didn't disappear I felt my heart do a painful thing that ached as much as my head.

"No." Staring in confusion at her slow even breaths on my pillows I turned my head right and left just once to myself. "No."

A knock, sharp and frantic downstairs made me tense, eyes shifting quickly to the hall outside my open bedroom door.

Bracing for a fight, I squared my shoulders and headed down into the fray.

I didn't know it at at the time, but nothing was going to prepare me for this particular trial.

* * *

 ** _This is the teaser for Switcharoo._**

 ** _It will not all be in first person- this is the only chapter that will. I took it for a test drive. No go. I kept messing up tenses. It felt awkward and stuttered._**

 ** _:)_**

 ** _-Inky_**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hello darlings,**_

 _ **I am feeling the headache of writing a time travel dimension jumping fic, having never done that. So there will be mistakes. I know it, you know it. You know the drill, point them out in the reviews for my unstable mind to try to edit one day and thank you so much for reading my fledgling thoughts.**_

 ** _Much much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

 ** _PS. The response to this story was insane by the way. I checked my email today and I was like "Wowzers." Thanks people. :) You're all great._**

* * *

It had not been easy to get out of the house undetected. It had been even harder to keep all the maids she had enter her space without really asking all morning long not notice the lump on her futon breathing softly. It had only occurred to her right then in a panic with a child buried beneath her covers and her heart in her throat that maybe she was lazy and needed to start doing some of her own things. Who needed half a dozen maids wandering through bringing breakfast, making the bed, and opening the windows.

Hinata Hyuuga was 25 years old and perfectly capable of taking a man's heart out of his chest with her bare hands. She could open her own curtains. She would, from that moment on.

She had no choice, of course. With a miniature Sasuke Uchiha in her covers. Choices were starting to drop around her like dead flies.

But with some dewy eyes and some whispered pleading about needing some time alone to meditate she had managed to get the maids out in record time. It made her wonder a little bit about how she had been behaving up until that moment that they seemed to understand instinctively that she was having a bad day. On the way out the door one of the older servants, a woman that Hinata had been comfortable and familiar with all her life paused by the door frame, her pale eyes still linked her to the family albeit distantly and sadly she had patted her hand.

"Master Neji would be so proud of you, Hinata-sama. We will get out of the way for you to continue your training."

Hinata had blinked at her mildly and after an appreciative word while she shut the door she gathered herself and the mini Sasuke in her arms and disappeared out of her bedroom window, thanking her lucky stars that yes, despite it being several years after the war she had indeed kept up with her training.

The child could not have weighed more than forty pounds. A trifle amount to carry for someone who was accustomed to the grueling lessons imposed by the Hyuuga Trainers in their dojo but even still Hinata was a breathless, sweaty and an increasingly panicky mess topped with a black cloak and an armful of blankets where the child hid by the time she appeared at Sasuke Uchiha's entrance.

Knocking on the door of the only occupied house in the half rebuilt Uchiha Compound she let out a breath, eyes fluttering left and right although she knew, and was thankful that the only people entering the compound would be the workers that the Hyuuga and Uchiha together had hired to redo the dilapidated land that her almost brother in law brought with him into the family.

With the sun so low still in the sky that wouldn't be for a few hours at least. Hopefully.

Swallowing Hinata knocked on the door again, more frantic, shifting the little Sasuke in her arms and watching as he peered up at her from the folds of the blankets she had cocooned him in, dark eyes reflecting the light at her like a million stars.

"Where are we?" He whispered, his words well pronounced but round with childishness, his voice soft and delicate as a bird call. Hinata gazed, marveling at the beauty of the child and remembering suddenly what the older version looked like felt her cheeks blaze red.

"Um." She began, and then the door opened.

A thunder cloud complete with the tang of chidori heavy on the air around him appeared before her, making her eyes widen.

"What?" He snapped, and froze. Clearly he had been expecting someone else because the tightness of his shoulders didn't dissipate and his stance didn't relax from it's defensive nature but his face stumbled like a baby learning to walk over his emotions and settled on bewildered.

"Hyuuga?"

Blinking rapidly Hinata tried out a few versions of what she needed to say in her head, pondering her options while studying the handsome man before her.

 _Hi, look I think your illigitimate son appeared in my room last night_

 _Good morning, can i ask you if you have any kids that maybe my family should know about?_

 _Look, I brought you someone who looks a lot like you._

Sighing she looked at him, feeling her chest rising and falling with her rapid breaths which did not want to slow despite her best attempts.

"Um." She began again, and his eyes drifted to her arms, the bewilderment melting from his face. In it's place was resigned dislike.

"Come in." He hardly whispered, stepping out of the way and she did. Standing awkward together at the entrance before he could ask anything else he jumped. The movement seemed so unnatural and stilted on his body that Hinata bit her lip. The sound that caused the fumble made her turn her eyes up the staircase in his dimly lit somber house and blinking she whispered. "Is that...crying?"

The soft little sound intensified and Sasuke followed her gaze up the stairs, clearing his throat briefly before heading up. "One... moment." He mustered and disappeared.

Slowly little Sasuke in her arms pressed his face into her collarbone, sniffing softly. "I want my Oka-san." He whispered and Hinata smoothed a hand over his head as she removed the blankets, raising her eyes up to Sasuke who was coming down the steps. His arms were full of something.

Something not possible.

Something unbelieveable.

Something that looked remarkably like... her.

The ground swayed and Hinata found herself leaning against the door behind her, watching the little face of the child in his grip as he approached.

She held the child in her arms, small, dark haired and glaring. He held the other child in his arms, trembling, blushing and terrified. Black eyes met white with twin panic.

"You... you... you appeared in my room!" Hinata raised the boy in her grip who glared at Sasuke with a frown and he sucked in a breath as he tried desperately to fathom staring at his five year old self.

"Yeah well." Sasuke finally offered slowly, raising his eyes from the onyx black glaring at him to the clearly frightened lavender gaze of the elder Hyuuga in his presence. "Right back at you." And he looked at the girl sitting with her face in her hands in his grip, eyes widening bigger and bigger as she looked at little Sasuke.

"Oh!" She gasped, her little voice wet with tears. In turn the little Sasuke's eyes were brightening, recognition flashing through his face and turning his glare to sheer delight. "Hinata!"

In two seconds flat the kids were wriggling out of the adult's hands and under their mildly terrified and increasingly confused stares they crushed each other into firm choke hold hugs so tight it was hard to tell who was who.

"What?" Hinata the elder whispered, raising a hand to her head in confusion and Sasuke too took a step back, studying the hugging children like something in Orochimaru's test labs.

"I... did we know each other as kids?" He finally whispered turning to Hinata who looked back at him at a complete loss.

"Not like that." She waved a hand mildly at the embracing toddlers and shot to red on her face when little Sasuke calmly planted a kiss on little Hinata's cheek. "Not... like that." She added again.

Sasuke had to very firmly agree.

* * *

It was becoming very clear that the kids not only knew each other, but knew each other well. Very well. Too well, one would even say.

"How... how?... Is she your sister?" Hinata began, trying to figure out how this little boy could be so attached to that little girl, whose face was familiar like a dusty old memory.

Little Hinata was sitting on Sasuke's couch with the only thing that was child approved from his kitchen in her lap. Cut up apples.

Besides that there was a lot of Sake and old sushi in his fridge.

Little Sasuke was sitting so close beside her that their legs were meshed together down to the calf, only separating at the ankle where their tiny bones protruded from their limbs gently.

His dark eyes studied the lady in front of him carefully. "That's yucky." He said seriously, eyes flickering to Hinata whose face was a permanent pink under his undivided attention. "I'm gonna marry Hina-chan. She can't be my sister."

Behind the elder Hinata Sasuke dragged in air with some difficulty and leaned his head back to smack against the shelf on his wall. "This just gets better and better."

"There has to be a way to send them back." Hinata replied, feeling the discomfort like an actual fire in her chest. The flames were licking at her ears and cheeks and neck and if Sasuke had had any doubts about who the little girl in his room was the blush fire on her skin set them to cinders.

"How? And back where? In time?" He studied the kids again watching with mild discomfort as the little girl turned to the boy, apple in hand in offering and he smiled as though she had just offered him gold, a heart melting adoring smile, so much so it even had the usually stern Uchiha blinking in surprise.

"I'm thinking it's a different dimension." He muttered based on his current assessment.

"We can't let anyone know about this." Hinata continued as though he had said nothing because nothing he was saying was useful. "If anyone looks at him they're going to think he's your son and if they think he's your son my sister-"

"The wedding." Sasuke closed his eyes and took another slow breath.

This was getting quickly out of his control which was exactly the thing he hated the most about anything. "Maybe the Hokage..." Hinata began and Sasuke's raised brows were answer enough to that idea. Quickly she killed her voice and turned away, thankful that it wasn't just her that was against approaching Naruto with a problem like this.

"I just don't understand." Sasuke muttered. "Why...?" He had wanted to say "Why you and me of all people?" Because if there was anyone that would want to mess with him he could wrap his head around that. A little Naruto or a little Sakura would make more sense than a little Hinata in his room.

Not that any of it made any sense at all.

Sighing he rubbed his forehead with his finger tips lightly. The headache that had started at midnight was setting up shop in his brain.

"We need to tell someone." Hinata began. "This is over our heads."

"No." Sasuke snapped, and walked towards the kitchen in search for something caffeinated. "We can't talk about this. Besides putting us in an insane asylum the other options are assuming they're our offspring."

Hinata balked at that. "I think people would recall me not being pregnant."

"Look at her." Sasuke's tone was dismissive as he waved a hand to the blushing brunette baby on the couch and Hinata's eyes flinched as the child wrinkled her nose in a familiar way.

"But we can't... I don't know how to fix this." She waved at them from the doorway to his sparse little kitchen. "Do you?"

"No. But I do know that I didn't father a child." He glanced at her as if to reaffirm this to which Hinata grit her jaw. "But that's not what people are going to think when they see him and like you said: your sister." He let that hang.

Hanabi.

Hinata mulled this over. The marriage to the Uchiha was something that her father had been adamantly against despite the elder's council being determined it would suit the needs of the clan best. The rogue ninja Sasuke had been back in the good favor of Konoha for years, and not only was he of marrying age but also burdened with an overabundance of fortune and land he had not touched since disappearing.

The Hyuuga could use a boost and with the clan joined by the two heirs the power political and otherwise in the village would be undoubtedly in the Hyuuga-Uchiha hands.

The fact that he was a single person versus an entire Clan was also favorable. Hanabi's cut throat and logical mind played to their needs perfectly, especially since she was not sentimental like the eldest who had stepped from the Head role so long ago.

She could be persuaded to marry an Uchiha if it was presented in the right fashion. And Hinata knew, in the end for Hanabi it helped that he was ruthless, feared and easy on the eyes. The rest just fell into place by accident.

The paperwork had been done and now with only a month left to the wedding there was pressure as the final arrangements were made for the extended family to arrive from further out in fire country. As the village's most prestigious Clan the celebration was almost a city wide affair and food as well as music and dance was scheduled on the streets as well as at the Main House.

To stall the wedding would be a huge monetary loss, besides the shame that Sasuke would be forced to endure at the hand of gossips. By turn the Hyuuga would be humiliated.

Hinata took a deep breath and glanced back at the two kids on the couch and the firm grip that they had on each other's hands.

How could two little people hold so much chaos in their at their tiny fingertips?

"What are we going to do then?" She whispered, trying to think. It was early, but soon Hanabi would be asking where she was. As her wedding drew near so did her need to control everything grow. Lately her thing had been wanting to know where her family was at all times in case she needed them for an opinion on the final wedding touches. Hinata had only ever been summoned once or twice for such a thing in the last year since the finalization of the engagement and when her pale face had showed a complete lack of pleasure Hanabi had sent her away with a sniff of dislike.

"I don't know." He said it firmly, like one would state a plan. Hinata just blinked at him, growing more irritated and frantic with each passing minute. "But..."

"I have no idea." He turned to her, coffee in hand, frown on face. Finally doing one thing that was normal in his morning. "There are kids that claim to be us on the couch and I have no idea."

"We can't...we can't just sit here." She murmured, glancing back at the kids who were oblivious to their conversation, enthralled in each other. "Those kids are missing- your parents... he said he wants his mom... they must be worried?" The care on her face was clear as the sky outside.

At the mention of his parents Sasuke's eyes shot to the child again, and Hinata breathed in deeply. "...sorry... He... I asked him how old he was. He said...four, almost five."

Sasuke didn't remove his gaze from the dark eyed boy on the couch, although there a was a short quickly stopped tremble in his wrist that made his coffee mug shiver momentarily. Five meant that child had approximately two more years of normalcy before a darkness that had nearly killed him destroyed him. Changing gears he turned his eyes back to Hinata.

"So the girl is the same?"

"She looked about four or five." Hinata nodded, glad for the change of topic. "But then, I don't recall what I looked like, exactly."

A knock on the front door made them pause and Sasuke put his mug down, taking a deep breath. "You need to hide them."

"Where?" Hinata gasped, walking rapidly towards the kids who were pushing to stand, looking panicked based off the expressions of the adults coming towards them. "I don't know, upstairs?" Sasuke replied, realizing with some bitter dislike that he had been saying the words "I don't know" entirely too often the entire morning.

"But-" Hinata began and froze, because the door, although locked was opening and Sasuke had his hand filled with kunai in an instant, at the ready. Arms full of kids Hinata was staring at the warmth of the spring day, which seemed unnaturally bright in that long moment as the door slid open slowly.

Standing there, looking perhaps a little nervous was the one person Hinata would not have expected, she felt as her heart stilled and the air in her lungs turned to ice at the apparition.

"...N...Neji-nii?"

Hands up in a show of peace her tall handsome cousin stepped into the threshold of the Uchiha house, allowing himself a little smile at Hinata over Sasuke's shoulder.

"Hello, Hime."

Sasuke slowly closed his gaping mouth.

"Okay. We died. That's what happened. Somehow we died. Problem solved." He threw the kunai to the floor, letting out a harsh breath.

"No." Neji smirked at him in that patronizing fashion that irritated the Uchiha to no end. "Although I am assuming it would be a special kind of hell for you if you had to see me first after dying, Uchiha."

"Neji-nii!" Hinata gasped, shoving past Sasuke towards her cousin. Her hands had been up to wrap around him but with a stuttered breath she found herself on the other side of the doorway, gazing at him in surprise.

Neji's smile had turned sad, his pale eyes knowing. "Sorry, Hime. You can look, but you can't touch."

"What...?" she began softly, eyes wide and tearfilled.

"It's a ghost." Little Sasuke's voice was knowing, his arm was wrapped around little Hinata tightly who was shivering with wide pale lavender eyes fixed on the man in the door way.

Neji turned and stepped into the house, nodding at Hinata. "You're going to want to be in here, Hime."

Slowly his cousin stepped inside, closing the door behind herself and settling them into the dim light of the early morning.

"First of all, yes." He nodded at little Sasuke who looked proud of himself for having got it right. "I'm... a ghost, of sorts." He looked down at himself. He seemed solid, his clothes had wrinkles in them and the light didn't pass through, but as Hinata had seen, he only appeared. Like passing a hand through mist he had disappeared at her touch and, with arms wanting desperately to touch him she tensed, hugging herself instead.

"What is happening?"

"I've been sent as a messenger." He looked at the kids. "To explain, a couple things that may have appeared recently."

"From who?" Sasuke's face was actually registering the shock. "Who would send you?"

"Kami." Neji supplied with a shrug. "The Gods."

Hinata was speechless. Soon, she was sure, she was going to wake up from a fitful sleep, maybe she was even ill and suffering from a fever that was trying to kill her.

"You've attracted the attention of two." He meandered over to the kids who shrunk into each other at his approach although they seemed less afraid and more wary. Neji's hand lingered near little Hinata for a moment, his face soft.

"Why?" Sasuke frowned. Surely, gods had more important things to do.

"Well, since the war they've been at peace and peaceful gods tend to be more tricky." Neji shrugged slightly. "They are siblings, Ama the Goddess of the Sun and Susa, the God of the are always bickering and their current thing is you."

"Me?" Sasuke pointed at himself, incredulous.

"No, you two." Neji pointed back and forth between Hinata and Sasuke.

"What?" Hinata was starting to feel like a parrot, her eyes had grown as big as they possibly could.

"Here's the thing, I don't have a lot of time to explain so let me summarize: they're bored. They've made a wager. In the past there was a possibility that your life would have been different." He glanced over at the tightly entangled kids on the couch. "You don't remember it was that long ago. In that reality Sasuke and Hinata were...well... " He paused and studied the clinging pair. "Different." He surmised carefully. " The gods think that with your young hearts around to remind you of who you used to be you should be able to change your present and therefore your future. The Goddess Ama believes that you can both find true love with someone in the next month. The God Susa does not. The way to send the children back to where they belong is for you to find love, or have your heart broken because either way the wager has been won by one of the gods."

"This is a nightmare." Hinata whispered. "I...I... I don't think I can possibly..."

"You have to." Neji cocked his head at her just a little and his smile was everything from knowing to sly and even a little sad in his affection. "You have to because if you don't they won't go back."

"What?" Sasuke breathed in deeply. "But-"

"Yes." Neji nodded at him, knowing he had grasped the implications. "If you went missing when you were four, what would have happened differently?"

" _We_ will disappear." Sasuke was glaring at him as he waved a hand at Hinata and back at himself. "You've come to tell us that if we don't play this stupid game- we will just-"

"Yes. You'll start over, here, as them." He turned to the kids who were wide eyed, trying to follow the conversation that the soothing man was spouting and comprehending little.

"I have to sit down." Hinata whispered, sliding down the wall to the floor, head in her hands.

"I have run out of time." Neji murmured and she looked up sharply, eyes wet with tears. "No... wait."

"I can't." His image was getting fuzzy as he spoke. "Don't over think it. Gods like to make simple things seem difficult when they are rather straight forward. Don't fret." He glanced over at Sasuke then, as his image began to soften to the reflection of Neji in water. "And you, hurt either Hinata and I'll haunt you. I have a lot of free time on my hands lately."

Scowling Sasuke turned away, raising his hands to his hair just as the image disappeared into the air with a sigh like the wind through the trees.

Little Sasuke cocked his head at where the man had been standing, pondering. "Good thing I know who I love." He murmured, hand gripping the hand of the object of his affections tightly. Little Hinata flushed scarlet but didn't contradict.

The adults in the room stared for a long agonized moment at the pair of innocents and then together sighed.

 _We're screwed._

* * *

Despite the protests from the Uchiha Hinata had been firm about the kids staying at his house for the day. The only commitment on his schedule besides training was in the evening at her house for a dinner involving the family to discuss more plans for the wedding. If he was sneaky he could get in with the kids and leave them with her in her room while the dinner occurred.

She would, as was pretty common for her, skip out of the meal altogether and spend some time brainstorming how to get her heart broken so the children could go back home. Because what other options did they have really?

"You could fall in love with my sister." Hinata had pointed out and Sasuke's deadpan expression had made her wince. "Oh, Uchiha-san." She had frowned.

"She's five years my junior and we've had three conversations since the engagement." Sasuke had muttered a little defensively. "This wasn't exactly Romeo and Juliet."

So that left her, and considering her track record the surefire thing was aiming for heart break. It was the only thing that she was good at, love wise.

Frowning at her own gloomy mood she shifted on her knees blinking rapidly at her father as he scanned over documents behind the low traditional desk. The oak it was carved from was a beautiful ancient thing and it's grain shone through in the shiny surface where scrolls and other important documents didn't hide it. Behind him a painting stood proudly of the Sakura Tree that dominated the court yard where the wedding would be taking place in a few weeks. Beneath it's blooms the new heads of the Uchiha and Hyuuga Clans would join forces.

Hinata swallowed hard and wondered if it would be allowed for her to marry beneath the tree, if that were to ever even come to pass.

She laughed internally at herself. First she needed to get her heart broken again, then she could think about marrying. Probably when she turned the ripe age of fifty. This thought made her let out an irritable breath.

"Sighing?" Hiashi murmured softly before looking up at his daughter sitting stiffly in front of him. "Is something on your mind, Daughter? Or perhaps am I taking too much of your time instructing you on the matters of your family?"

Hinata blinked several times at him and wondered if other people were offended by the way her father asked things. A long time ago she would have taken his statement as a jab and felt cowed. Now as an adult she had realized often he didn't mean what he implied, he meant what he said. He might actually be concerned something else was important and needing her attention. And it was true he was teaching her clan matters. But somehow when he said it it sounded...manipulative.

It was a painful social inadequacy that, for the most part had worked to his favor and made him seem brutal and honest and feared. In reality he was just...awkward.

Smiling a little nervously Hinata shook her head. "Not at all, Otousan. I am happy to learn anything you have to teach me."

"Hm." He murmured and lifted his eyes from the paper in his hands. "Sometime ago I would have been surprised to hear that." He lowered the document to his desk with another deep breath that sounded heavy with nostalgia. "I wish you to know what it takes to lead this family, should the need ever arise. I would have done the same with Hanabi, were the roles reversed." He added. For a heart beat it seemed that that would be the end of it, but then suddenly he continued. "Perhaps not as thoroughly as I am with you, however."

Frowning a little Hinata blinked at him, receiving the document he extended over the desk surface. "I beg your pardon, Otousan. Have I not been absorbing your lessons properly?"

"That's not it." Hiashi murmured and in the light of the window blasting with noon day sun his thick brows looked more bushy than she remembered. And more gray. Studying him anew Hinata paused, surprised. Her father had turned into an old man, little by little like drops of water falling forever on a stone wearing away at it with it's stubbornness.

"Hanabi is so strong." He whispered, and Hinata felt the sudden need to look around, as though what they were speaking of needed to remain in the room and heard by no one else. Restraining herself from scanning the space with her Byakugan she remained still.

For years she had worried about the turn that her once sweet sister had taken, her merciless training had nowhere to go. With the war having ended and missions being high ranked beyond her league or too low for her expertise she was a tiger pacing in too small a cage. Her ceaseless energy and prodigious body slammed around in her soft peaceful world looking for hard edges.

Instead the hard edges grew on her as her tastes sharpened to spoiled status and her temper became easily flared.

"Perhaps too strong." He added and his eyes shifted to his eldest, to the one who with mercy had forsaken her birthright at the fight he and the council had orchestrated so many years ago.

Hinata moved to stand abruptly, feeling a nauseating fist tighten in her stomach. "I should probably be going, Otousan."

"The marriage would put her at the head of a much smaller clan, and the Uchiha would lose out on some of the splendor that came from marrying the heiress. However it is still a good marriage and could go forward without her title." He continued, watching his daughter who he once thought so clumsy slowly gather herself into a swan smooth rise from the ground. Her soft kimono rippled at her movements and standing with her eyes lowered to the smooth wood ground she kept her face placid like the pond in the gardens outside.

"Otousama." Hinata bowed deeply. "Your thoughts give me such a feeling of pride, that you would consider me worthy." She paused, and in the silence her father gave a soft sigh. "However." He murmured for her and Hinata raised herself from the bow. "I have long ago let the title pass. But I also pause at the thought of the pain I would cause my sister..." she drifted off, picturing not the tears but the anger which caused her to wince.

Hiashi worked his jaw as though the problem were a hard nut he was trying to crack with his teeth. "The tantrum would be something to absorb. But with her marriage and the start of a new family I do believe that it could be tempered."

Hinata did not reply, thinking to her surprise, of Sasuke. If he were to hear that the Hyuuga were considering withdrawing a large portion of the expectations from the woman he was to marry would he reconsider? Could he without insulting the entire Clan?

At her long silence her father smiled, a half smile with little mirth and more sadness. "You are dismissed, Daughter. Go about your business."

"Have a good evening, Otousan." Hinata bowed again before stepping out the door only to start in surprise at a servant standing just outside, his eyes lowered and his hands filled with tea for her father.

How long had he been standing there?

Biting her lip for just a moment she stepped aside, watching him move into the study with a short nod of respect before disappearing.

Judging by the way the sun had looked out her father's windows she had no time to consider what he had said or if the servant had been listening. Two troublesome little ones were going to show up at her room at any moment and she had to find a way to keep them hidden while the rest of the family sat down for supper with the soon to be son of the Hyuuga Clan.

Nervously she walked quickly down the hall and to her rooms, glancing around for a moment as she entered her room before opening the window in anticipation of Sasuke arriving with the kids.

The air was cold and crisp and in the stillness she stood, frowning at the view of the sun set from her third story window. Out beyond the Compound walls and the forest and the village lights between the hills the sun was nestling into the arms of the mountains.

It was the strangest day she had had and part of her still expected to wake up frazzled in bed.

Before those doubts could really take root however a shadow appeared before the window pane and she stepped back, swallowing hard as Sasuke Uchiha climbed into her bedroom.

It had not occurred to her how strange it would be to have the Uchiha in her personal space, but somehow it was nerve wrecking. The room seemed smaller with him in it, and dressed in the traditional robes of a young lord he was both stunning and made her a little sick as he alighted with little Hinata in his arms and the dark spiky hair of his young counterpart peeking from his shoulder on his back.

"Well, if nothing else I'm realizing I'm a little rusty." He muttered darkly, lowering the girl to the floor and watching with a little irritation as she ran helter skelter at Hinata as though to be saved from a monster.

Hinata blinked at him. "You had trouble?"

"It's a compound full of Byakugan users, so it was a little tricky." He admitted, crouching to let little Sasuke down. Promptly the boy moved over to where little Hinata was standing, holding on to the taller Hinata's leg and peering at Sasuke with wide frightened eyes. Elder Sasuke blinked slowly, his irritation flowering on his face before turning back to the other adult in the room. "I'm not great with kids."

Something of a smirk fluttered on her lips and in response he kept himself from frowning. "They wanted to eat, but I-" He stopped. "They haven't had dinner yet." He finished.

"That's fine. I will be having dinner in my room so we can have something from that." Hinata shifted her weight then and paused, feeling the grip of her own much younger hands on her kimono.

"It's okay, Hinata." the little boy whispered and both Hinata's turned to look at him at once.

"The names thing... is going to be a problem." Sasuke muttered.

"Sometimes his eyes glow." Little Hinata whispered back, eyes flickering to elder Sasuke who sighed. "She's frightened by my Sharingan."

"I think she's in good company, if she is." Hinata defended softly, putting a hand on the tiny dark head by her thigh. "Hey." she smiled at the kids who looked at her curiously, standing very close together and a little apprehensive in their gaze. "How about from now on we call you Hina, and Sasu? Do you guys think that would be okay?"

The kids frowned, not sold on the idea. Thinking quickly Hinata added. "You know, it's like when people who like each other a lot call each other different names...like honey or sweetie. It's important for only people who like one another in a very special way."

Looking at each other Sasu and Hina smiled, one blushing more than the other.

"Okay." They chorused turning back to Hinata. Satisfied she straightened and blinked at the surprised look on Sasuke's face.

"Hn." He grunted thoughtfully, eyeing her with interest she had never noted before.

"...dinner will be starting soon, I think." Hinata offered, eyes flickering to the sunset nearly gone behind him and he turned, glancing at it before nodding.

"Right. I'll... stop by again when it's done to figure out...everything else." He shook his head in disbelief at the words coming out of his mouth and moved off into the window frame, dark eyes turning to Hinata again for a moment, a puzzled look crossing over his face briefly.

Hinata held on to the window pane, ready to close it as he left, blinking at him patiently. "Uchiha-san? Are you okay?"

"Yes." He seemed to snap out of an intense thought and turned. "Yes, I'm fine."

And then he was gone, a flicker of movement and a sharp snap of air that made the leafs collected on her window sill dance the only sign he had been there.

Behind her Hina sighed deeply in relief. "The scary man is gone." she breathed and Hinata felt herself smirk a little at the irony of her words.

"Let's see if I can find us some dinner, shall we?"

Together the dark haired miracles grinned at her shyly, tummies grumbling. "Yes!"

* * *

 _ **I have noticed that the Hinata in this fic seems a little different from the Hinata I usually write. More talkative maybe? Less nervous?What do you think? Because of that I feel almost like she's OOC.**_

 _ **I'm just getting into the feel of this story, but unlike some others I have going this one has a plotline with a clear and pretty concise storyline. So I'm hopeful.**_

 _ **leave me some love, ne!**_

 _ **Inky**_

 _ **ALSO**_

 _ **The gods Ama and Susa are actually Amatesaru and Susanoo who are deities in Shinto for those of you who did not know, they do in fact bicker a lot and Susanoo is fierce and tempestuous (he's the god of the ocean and storms, go figure) and he's a trickster.**_

 _ **They will be playing a pretty heavy roll in this, but I didn't want to call them Amatesaru or Susanoo because... ya know... those are things in the Naruto-verse already and then things get all confusing etc.**_

 _ **So for now, they are Ama and Susa.**_

 _ **We cool?**_

 _ **Okay good.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**When the writing bug bites it's not so much hives as quickly spreading fire.**_

 _ **Good bye sleep. See ya later.**_

 _ **Also flamer! Hi! How's it going! Love you!**_

 _ **I was gonna write out some examples for you of actual insults, but then i thought, you know what, you got those streamlined copy and paste skills working for ya. I'll just let that be.**_

 _ **You know what you're doing, clearly. Muah.**_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **Inky**_

* * *

The plan had been going splendidly. The maids did not question her request for enormous amounts of food and after giving the compound a quick scan with her Byakugan she could see through the walls her sister fluttering around in her room getting ready in a splendid kimono of their mother's while downstairs Sasuke was welcomed by Hiashi's head servant into a waiting room for the customary before dinner drinks.

No one was paying her the least bit of attention.

Happily she had turned back to the children in her care who were sprawled on the futon she had pulled out of her closet and laid out for them as they picked at piles of sticky rice with their fingers. Hina happily passed slices of her tomato over to Sasu's bowl without comment and just as happily he pushed over the dessert of pound cake that the maid had brought with dinner for Hinata to Hina's side of the tray.

Bemusedly the elder Hyuuga watched them from her place on her knees on the other side of the little table.

"Sasu, do you...not like sweets?" Hinata blinked mildly as she watched her young self gobble the pound cake before anything else. She smiled widely then, wishing she had the gall to do that now.

"No." Sasu replied calmly stirring a bowl of soup round and round before lifting the bowl to his lips and sipping with fervor. They looked half starved as they ate, all sense of manners thrown out the window. Even Hina, who Hinata knew had been drilled from the high chair to mind her manners was throwing everything that had been pounded into her under the bus in favor of getting food in her mouth as fast as she could.

"Did you not eat anything for lunch?" She blinked, scooping a bit more of the roasted fish onto their plates which they dove into with happy full mouths.

"No." Sasu replied while Hina simply shook her head. Surprised Hinata peered at them. "What? Uchiha-san didn't give you anything to eat?"

Again the shaking heads. Brows rising Hinata let out a little noise that might have been on the irritated side of bemused and moved to stand. "Well..." she began, her thoughts muddled with a funny feeling in her chest. If she had known better she might have known it was the first growls of a sleeping mother bear within her.

That's when the soft knock on her door sounded and she turned sharply, eyes widening before the Byakugan veins snapped into place over her face, allowing her to see her father in the traditional garb for a formal dinner standing with his hands within his sleeves waiting patiently on the other side of the door.

Behind him a maid stood with a kimono of her mother's hanging from a hanger and the tail ends raised in her hands carefully off the floor.

"Oh no." Hinata whispered.

"Daughter? Are you decent?" Hiashi called from the other side of the door, reaching towards the door knob.

Blushing fiercely Hinata grabbed at her yukata collar with pale hands despite the fact that she was in fact decent. Just being asked that was enough to make her overheat. "Ah! N...no! I apologize Father I was... um..." she floundered standing on the other side of the door. "I was... heading into the bath."

"Oh!" He sounded surprised and then. "Well, could you perhaps not at this moment? I would very much like you to attend the dinner tonight. I know I said your presence was not needed but after some thinking..." He let the sentence hang and remembering their conversation from earlier in the day Hinata chewed on her lip nervously.

Oh no. If her father was actually thinking of taking the title from Hanabi in favor of her again then this sudden appearance of her at a formal family gathering where she would usually not be expected would be the first step.

"Uh... I... I apologize Otousan. Please... forgive me but... I.. I am not prepared to-" She gasped, and perhaps fearing what she was going to say with a servant standing right behind him her father cut her off.

"I will leave Michigo here with the kimono for the dinner. She can help you dress. I will go entertain Uchiha-san until then. Please make haste." And before she could say anything else he was walking away leaving the befuddled maid in the hallway with her arms raised awkwardly full of kimono.

Hinata stared through the door for a moment longer and then glanced back at the children who were staring at her frozen in place, eyes round and sparkly in the light of the lamps she had turned on to fend off the coming darkness.

"Um..." she whispered, trying to think frantically.

"Hinata-sama?" Michigo called through the door. "Forgive me, my lady but the kimono is rather heavy and I am afraid if I put it down it will be ruined."

Breathing fast Hinata walked back to Sasu and Hina, whispering.

"Listen," she started urgently. "If people find you then Uchiha-san and I will not be able to get you home. You can't be here." she studied their faces and the kids blinked back at her with growing trepidation. "So I need you to stay here, please. Do not leave the room, if you hear someone coming in hide, use the shinobi skills you have, okay?"

Shaking a little the children gazed at her. "O...Okay.." Hina began with quickly tear filled eyes.

"It's okay." Hinata put a hand to her tiny round cheek. "I'll be back as fast as I can, I promise."

"Hinata-sama?" The maid called again from the other side of the door and scrambling Hinata grabbed the door, flinging it open to step outside quickly.

"I... my bedroom is such a mess from... um... training...I was doing earlier before dinner was brought up and I would hate the smell of miso to get into the fibers. Can we...uh...could we get me dressed perhaps in Hanabi-sama's dressing room?" She stuttered and Michigo who was an older lady of forty or so blinked mildly at her before nodding. "Certainly, Hinata-sama. Wherever you like. Shall I tell a maid to come and clean your bedroom for you while you're at dinner?"

"No! No... I should be doing that. It's... um... justus scrolls and... it's best I do it. I was caught unawares with this dinner." Hinata laughed nervously and followed after her quickly down the hall, glancing back just once to see Sasu and Hina looking at each other worriedly within the walls of her room.

Well. The plan was going slightly less splendidly. Fantastic.

* * *

When she appeared at the doorway of the dining room their eyes met over the table and it took all of their combined years of working as shinobi to keep both their faces from twisting into anxiety inducing wide eyes or confused gestures. In fact Sasuke would go so far as to say he nearly jumped out of his skin but managed not to by the sheer fear of making his ancestors roll around in their graves.

"...Good evening, Hyuuga-san." He began formally as a maid led Hinata to sit across from him at the table. On his right was his fiance who frowned at Hinata slightly as though puzzled by her presence and next to Hinata sat their father conversing in low voices with several elders that had joined them that day.

"U-Uchiha-san. Sister." Hinata tried to smile as she settled carefully on her knees at the low table.

"I didn't know you would be here for dinner, Sister." Hanabi interjected cocking her head. The dangling jewels hanging from her elaborate hairdo glittered in the dim light of the lanterns that hung above them and her narrowed pretty eyes studied her intently, although her pink mouth pulled into a smile that seemed to soften the expression. If only a little.

"I... did not know either." Hinata admitted ruefully. Unlike her sister her hair was in a cascade of black around her shoulders, contrasting with the lavender of her kimono. At the hem the fabric rose around her in the colors of the mountains and forests, the embroidery cinching at her waist beautifully.

Momentarily Sasuke forgot about what had been causing him such anxiety as he watched the graceful turn of her and when she glanced back to him he looked away sharply, frowning a little as Hinata reached for a green tea cup that had been placed at her side. "Thank you." she whispered to the servant who filled her cup and with obvious kindness the servant smiled back, bowing his head in respect at her words.

"Otousan was informing us that the relatives from Sand will be arriving shortly before the wedding and that the Kazakage from Sand will also be coming with them to pay his respects." Hanabi continued, raising her cup at the servant passing by behind her expectantly without saying a word, her eyes fixed on Hinata's own.

"Gaara-sama?" Hinata blinked in surprise. "Oh, I did not know he was invited."

"Everyone's invited." Hanabi cocked her head at her in a knowing way, flashing her a little smile.

Sasuke sighed. "I find it unnecessary." His gaze flitted to Hinata. "It's a lot of people to have around."

Thinking of the two children hiding in her room Hinata closed her eyes briefly and looked down at her tea cup. The children had to be gone by the time the wedding happened. There was no way they could keep them hidden during the chaos of a wedding and the aftermath. How?

They couldn't even hide them for a day without leaving them alone.

Nervously Hinata tried to think back to her room, picturing in her growing panic kunai left in reach, katanas played with by unsuspecting hands.

"You _would_ think that, Uchiha-san." Hanabi smiled at him. "If it was up to you there would be no celebration at all, just the marriage certificate."

Sasuke frowned, turning to look at her out of the corner of his eye. "That is not true."

"Hinata only wants a tiny wedding, isn't that right, Sister?" Hanabi dragged her out of the worried thoughts overtaking her and Hinata jumped a little turning to look back at her sibling. "I beg your pardon?"

"You used to tell me when we were little that you wanted to have just your close friends, Otousama, me, Neji-nii and the friends and parents of- oh I guess not parents. Naruto wouldn't have that." Hanabi's smirk was amused at the flash of red that rose on Hinata's face.

Surprise flitted over Sasuke's eyes for a half second as he watched the unusually calm Hyuuga before him, her pale hands purposefully lax on her lap while her face turned impossibly placid despite the rose pink of her cheeks.

In her stillness he studied the round pinkness of her mouth, the length and breadth of her lashes around her pale gaze as they blinked slowly once and then twice at her sister.

"I'm sorry, Sister." Hanabi continued. "I forgot how embarrassed you are when someone mentions him. I guess he's the one that got away, ne?"

"Hanabi." Hiashi's voice suddenly made the three at the end of the table realize the elders had stopped talking together and Hanabi turned to him calmly. "Yes, Otousan?"

"Let us put foolish talk away and focus on the important visitors we will be having during this wedding of yours, shall we?" He murmured, glancing at Hinata who slowly raised the cup of tea to her lips again, eyes lowered to the table, back stiff and straight as the heat began to ebb away from her neck and cheeks.

"Certainly, Otousan. Please, don't mind us reminiscing about our childhood." Hanabi murmured softly as she straightened and smiled brightly at the elders.

As if on cue the servants stepped through the doors laden with trays of delicacies to place before the guests. As they danced around them Sasuke blinked mildly at Hinata, waiting until she raised her gaze up to him before allowing his lips to pull into a half smirk of amusement.

Pursing her lips she looked back down, feeling the heat shoot sharp back into her cheeks.

Good thing she wasn't a vindictive person or she would have been plotting ways to get her sister back.

"Hinata-sama," One of the maids murmured softly to her as she leaned down to place a tray of delicately arranged pickled vegetables on the table near her. "Would you like me to open the sliding doors to the gardens outside, ma'am? I do believe the gardeners have lit the floating lights on the pond. It would...cool the room a bit." She whispered.

Hinata blinked at her for a second and then smiled at her with genuine appreciation. "That would be lovely, thank you."

"Certainly, Hinata-sama. Right away."

Hanabi pouted at her from across the table. "They're always so eager to please with you. I always seem to have the bad luck of dealing with infuriating servants."

Keeping her head down Hinata arranged her chopsticks in her hand gently and almost too long a moment after her sister's comment murmured. "People have bad days."

Sasuke's eyes flickered up to Hinata again before taking some of the food on the tray between them. Hanabi smirked at her from across the table.

"Servants shouldn't be allowed to have bad days."

Finally irritated Hinata looked up at her, brows furrowed only to freeze, her eyes drifting past her sister to the garden being revealed as the servants removed the sliding doors to open the room to the wild breeze and the sparkles of the stars in the navy blue sky. On the water of the pond beyond the first soft hill of grass the paper lanterns floated glowing like spirits in the haze of long grass and cat tails.

And among the shadows Hinata could see two little bodies running around, about the same height and dark haired. Their joyful spring night tumble was costing her about ten years of her life. She almost felt her hair turn gray as her eyes widened just a fraction.

"Who is that?" Hiashi murmured, frowning out into the garden but by now the sun had long set and in the dimness only the vague shapes of the tumbling toddler limbs could be seen.

Catching on to the tensing of Hinata's body Sasuke followed her gaze out into the garden and also felt his spine snap like a metal rod straight.

"Oh." He began.

"L-let them be." Hinata stuttered, drawing the attention of her father and the elders back to her at her stutter. A handful of frowns flashed over their faces and with some serious effort Hinata continued. "I'm sure they're just Hyuuga children playing before bed. Let's not ruin their fun."

"They should be in bed now." Hiashi murmured with disapproval.

"I will deal with it immediately." One of the maids murmured softly, heading towards the garden only to stop when Hinata's hand raised and gripped her sleeve between her thumb and index finger, causing her to pause sharply, eyes wide.

"Oh... I... you know, I am not feeling particularly well." Hinata whispered. "I... I am so very sorry, Otousama. I think I may need to take a minute to recoup. I can...I will let the children know to head home." She murmured, moving to stand.

"Hinata-sama, don't trouble yourself-"

"Let the servant do it." Hanabi frowned at her as she elegantly raised herself. "It's no trouble, I feel the fresh air might agree with me right now anyway." Her older sister smiled, catching the pale sheen on Sasuke's face and his stillness.

"Shall I come with you, Hyuuga-san?" He murmured, already standing.

"You too?" Hanabi frowned, turning to look at him.

"I would not want your sister to faint and hurt herself." Sasuke's tone was less than pleased and Hiashi and Hanabi blinked at him in surprise having heard little from the Uchiha up until this point.

"Oh. Well...thank you." Hanabi murmured, a little puzzled by the reprimanding tone still even as the two stepped down into the garden and into the chill of the early spring evening.

"Is that-?" Sasuke whispered as they stepped out of the light of the dinner happening behind them. Walking carefully in her kimono Hinata felt the Byakugan veins snap to attention at her temples and winced as the features of the children came into focus. "Yes. Oh, Kami... what are we going to do?"

"How did they get out here?" Sasuke's Sharingan activated and carefully he scanned the garden area.

"I don't know... I told them to stay in my room." Hinata's voice was two steps from hysteria and suddenly she felt Sasuke's grip on her wrist tightly. "I'm going to distract them, take the kids back to your room, I'll tell them you took them back to their parents and then went to lay down. Act sick tomorrow."

"Yes. Okay." Hinata breathed out softly, feeling the soft squeeze he gave her wrist before letting go as they approached the children who stopped rolling on the ground like puppies in a field the moment Hina caught the glowing red of Sasuke's sharingan in the dark.

With a soft squeak she scampered behind Sasu who frowned in the shadows at Sasuke brazenly.

"Your eyes." Hinata whispered into his ear and Sasuke blinked at her, the heat of her breath on his ear and cheek and the smell of something sweet wafted over him as he dispelled his kekkei genkai.

"It's okay." Hinata murmured softly. "Hina, it's okay. Uchiha-san's eyes are back to normal."

Peering from behind Sasu little Hina blinked rapidly at Sasuke who looked back at her curiously. "Oh." She breathed.

"What are you doing out here?" Sasuke inquired, although he wasn't sure there would be a very reasonable answer to his question. To his surprise Sasu piped up. "A lady walked into the room so we hid in the bathroom but then she went in there too so we went out the window." He raised his chin at them. "I hid us good."

A grin flashed over Hinata's face for a moment. "Sasu, you did an amazing job."

"Hn." Sasuke reached out and touched the head of black hair on top of the familiar black eyes blinking back up at him with curiosity. "You climbed down from the third floor?"

"Yep." Sasu looked unconcerned.

"I fell on my bum." Hina murmured very slowly from behind him, pale eyes shining by the light of the lamps from the pond.

"Well, I'm glad you're okay." Hinata smiled again at them. "But we have to go."

"Okay." Sasu looked ready, dusting his knees off absently with one hand while he grasped Hina's fingers with the other.

"You follow me, and Uchiha-san will distract the people." Hinata whispered. "You keep on this side of me so my skirt hides you, okay?"

"It's a kimono." Hina corrected absently, looking at it carefully. "Mine Oka-san has one just like that."

Sasuke stopped from turning around to head back to the dinner to watch Hinata's face soften for a moment, looking back at her young self before nodding. "Yes... Hina-chan. She did-does." Eyes flickering back at him she paused, surprised to see him watching.

"See you in a bit." He murmured, heading back to his fiance with a surprising new bitter taste in his mouth where before he had felt nothing.

Nothing at all.

* * *

It was late. But it appeared someone had indeed come to clear away the dinner that the kids had half eaten and properly set her futon out instead of the mess she had half done earlier in the evening. And although it had alarmed the kids and nearly made her have an anxiety attack she was glad. The children had passed out on it shortly after she returned to her rooms with them, the warmth and comfort of each other lulling them into a sleepy snooze and then full on deep sleep in minutes.

She sat on the cushioned bench by the window watching as the children breathed in their slumber among her blankets and sheets, faces tucked close and fingers entwined, trying to wrap her mind around the happenings of the day when the feel of approaching chakra made her glance up in time for Sasuke to materialize at her window. If she had not been expecting him the shock would have likely resulted in a kunai thrown from her hand or a gentle fist through the window.

He was a shadow, dark and brooding and with his glowing red gaze she shivered, understanding exactly what Hina found so unsettling about his eyes as she stood and delicately opened the window to allow him entry.

Sighing he lowered himself quietly to the ground beside her in the dim light of the single lit lamp, eyes focused on the sleeping children on her bed.

"This is going to be a problem." He whispered softly and Hinata sat down again, resting her hands delicately on her lap. "Yes."

"I'm engaged..." He continued very quietly and Hinata turned her pale eyes to him although he was still looking to the side at the sleeping problems breathing deeply. "I can't go around falling in love with anyone."

Hinata felt a muscle work softly in her jaw as she tightened.

"My sister... has her issues, but like anyone else, inside of her there is more than just...what you saw tonight." She murmured.

"Hm." His grunt was less than convinced and Hinata swallowed hard. For a long moment they were silent in the stillness and then, surprising both her voice came again in the quiet.

"Please... don't hate her."

Dark Uchiha eyes fluttered back to her, curiosity lighting the black. Hinata looked away after a moment. "She's my baby sister and I would hope that she would be happy with...you. I also wouldn't want you to be unhappy." She frowned, looking back up at him. Her last point he tucked away to examine later, interested by the fact that she had chosen to add it to her speech.

"And you?" His voice was a dark so rich it made her wonder if his chest vibrated with it. If she placed her palm upon the smoothness of his sternum would it tremble when he spoke softly like that?

Flushing at her thoughts Hinata blinked rapidly away. "Me?"

"You can't fall in love and break this thing?"

Subdued Hinata swallowed again painfully and stood, moving towards the bed where the kids lay.

"I am bad at it." She admitted with a laugh, pulling the blankets up around the children.

"The thing your sister mentioned." Sasuke continued, relentless, watching with interest as she stilled. "The thing about the dobe. That was recent wasn't it." It was framed as a question but it wasn't and with some careful movements she straightened to look at him again, although in reality she appeared to be looking behind him at some distant point in the navy blue sky at his back.

"I don't think I can take another heart break." She whispered back, unflinching in her confession even as her cheeks reddened. Sasuke breathed in slowly, impressed with her words despite what that meant for them.

"So." He murmured. "This is what the gods do on their free time." Slowly he moved back towards the window, opening it carefully. "I no longer feel guilty for never visiting a shrine."

"You shouldn't." Hinata muttered, flashing him a sad smile as he climbed back onto the window ledge easily. "I always go and here I am anyway."

"Hm." He looked at her for a long moment over his shoulder. "I'll be back early in the morning. At what time do the maids usually show?"

"I start training before six." Hinata's voice was feather soft and tired as she wandered towards him. "So they're here then."

"Training." He murmured, and puzzlement seemed to flit through his face again. "I didn't realize you still..."

"Hm." Hinata smiled a little knowingly as she lowered her head. "I didn't do it because I had to. Or...maybe I did and the thing I hated slowly turned to something I love." She shrugged. "It's habit now."

Sasuke didn't reply, dark eyes studying her like he was trying to figure something out before he stood. "I'll be back before then."

"Thank you."

"Hn." And he was gone with a flash of crimson eyes and the snap of his yukata in the cool night air.

* * *

Usually the maids woke her, and if they didn't then the sun did but apparently she had been extremely tired and perhaps because of how much she fake complained to the servant who helped her get out of her kimono the night before about how sick she was feeling no one came to knock on the door and wake her.

So. Naturally.

Sasuke Uchiha did.

And, also naturally, not the baby one she found adorable and easy to handle. No.

Tucked between the two kids she looked warm, her cheeks were pink, just the barest shade of red and she pouted in her sleep. Her usually neat black hair lay in an ink stain over her pillows and the children had nuzzled into her frame. Sasu's cheek was pressed to the nape of her neck and his arm was thrown over her shoulder. In her arms was Hina, snoozing with her nose to her exposed collarbone.

Sasuke stood at the end of the futon for a moment, watching their slow breaths wondering what kind of security they had in the compound if he could past it and into her room without anyone noticing. He certainly wasn't going to be able to leave it this way if Hanabi ever had his kids, they would be in danger if he did. Too many wanted the Sharingan eyes his blood could denote.

Slowly, he walked towards the side of the futon and moved to reach towards Hinata's shoulder, freezing abruptly when her byakugan lined eyes snapped open and the feel of chakra hissed through him as her hand lashed out, stopping just at his chest, pale gaze softening and then widening as he stared down at her, surprise and then full on amusement lighting his dark eyes.

"...good morning?" He murmured uncertainly, still feeling the liquid touch of her chakra hovering just over the fibers of his shirt.

"U-u-uchiha-san!" She gasped and her hand snatched from his chest to her own where her heart was suddenly galloping, gathering her sleeping yukata around herself tightly. "Ah... I... I am so sorry, I must have slept past- why aren't the maids here?" She blinked and began to sit up, shifting the children around her before managing it, one hand to her face. "I'm so sorry."

"I was expecting something." He commented dryly. "It's fine." She just shook her head, still buried in her hands and then he added. "It would not have been okay if you didn't defend yourself somehow."

"Ugh." She sighed, running her fingers through her tangled hair to straighten it before moving to stand. Surprising her Sasuke extended his hand out and sighing again she took it, allowing him to drag her up with ease. "Thank you."

"Hm."

"What do we do with them now?" she murmured, trying to change the topic as they eyed the knocked out toddlers on the futon. "I mean. They can't stay here."

"I'll take them to my house now." Sasuke muttered. "Although... feeding them..."

"Yes." Hinata turned to him and to his surprise she was frowning. "They have to eat all the time, they're children you know."

He blinked mildly at her for a moment. "All right..."

"They'll be cranky if they don't." She continued, hoping for a more understanding tone but he just continued to look at her with puzzlement. "Okay."

"You didn't feed them yesterday." She finally clarified, cocking her head. Sasuke started. "Oh."

There it was. Maybe understanding wasn't the tone she had been searching for after all. Shame, that was it. Satisfied Hinata smiled a little. "I'll have to shop for some things for them. They've been in the same clothes forever. And they need food at your house. Can I meet you there in a few hours? Would that work?"

"Yes. Although..." he stopped, thinking. "I know there's going to be a lot of the workers coming through the compound. I may be needed on occasion."

"That's fine. I'll be there." Hinata shrugged and crouched neatly, tucking her yukata under her legs with care before laying a gentle hand on Hina's shoulder.

"Hina-chan?"

Blearily the little girl yawned, pale eyes blinking in the brightness of the morn before rubbing her eye.

"Ka-san?"

Hinata withdrew her hand from her shoulder slowly, instead gripping her knees hard. "...no, Hina...I'm sorry. It's...it's just me."

"Oh." Confusion marred Hina's face for a second and then cleared as memory seemed to seep back. "Oh...right."

"It's time to go. Uchiha-san is taking you back to his house and then-"

"Oh no." Hina was suddenly pressing herself into the futon, her hands pulling the blankets up around her shoulders, eyes wide as they stared at Sasuke who blinked mildly back at her, unsure of himself.

"Hina," Hinata smiled gently and tapped her own temple. "You know how you and I have very special eyes?"

Blinking rapidly the little girl nodded, most of her face hidden beneath the covers but the special eyes they were discussing and her mop of indigo black hair.

"We have a special sight called the Byakugan, right? You know all about that, I'm sure." Hinata continued and Hina nodded slowly again.

"Uchiha-san and one day Sasu-kun have something else that is very special too, it is called Sharingan." Hinata cocked her head at her slightly. "It looks so pretty, like the bright red roses in the garden court yard. Do you know which ones I'm talking about?"

Hina was blinking slowly now, thinking, the tiny gears inside the child's head clearly turning.

"Uchiha-san." Hinata turned to Sasuke who turned his dark eyes to her with interest. "Could you maybe show Hina-chan your rose colored eyes?"

For a moment he just stared at her, at the sight of her in the white yukata with her hair tangled with sleep and her bright eyes blazing by the light of the morning, smiling up with a curious look on her face he couldn't place a name on.

"Of course." He murmured, blinking twice and the blaze of red flashed over his gaze. Hinata waved a hand gently at him motioning to come down with her and he crouched, watching her intently as she turned from him and back to Hina who was still beneath her blanket, eyes fixated on Sasuke's face.

"Uchiha-san will keep you safe with his eyes. So don't be scared." her long fingers reached out to run through the black bangs on the child's pale forehead. "They're beautiful eyes. No one else has rose colored eyes."

"Hm..." Hina murmured, moving to sit up, studying Sasuke with interest that had changed from sheer terror.

Turning back to Sasuke Hinata started, surprised to find his gaze on her already, sharingan eyes overwhelming in his proximity to her.

Wondering if she had somehow offended him Hinata opened her mouth to apologize when Sasu's voice made them both turn.

"I get to have rose eyes one day too?" He looked pleased, his hair defying gravity as he turned to look at Hina who seemed as happy with the revelation as he was. "I can give Hina flowers every day just when I blink." He grinned.

Hinata's smile spread to match his and softly she shook her head. "You're adorable, Sasu."

Beside her, thankful that her all seeing eyes were elsewhere Sasuke Uchiha felt himself heat until he was sure his cheeks were scarlet as his gaze and abruptly he stood, turning away from her.

"We should go." He began after clearing his throat.

"Right." Hinata nodded, moving to gather the kids shoes, oblivious to his eyes following her as she laughed at whatever they said, untangling knots in their hair with her long delicate fingers that had threatened to end his life just minutes before.

 _"You're adorable, Sasu."_

Heart pounding he turned away again, worried by the shifting feeling happening in his chest.

* * *

 _ **Hello dears.**_

 _ **Your lovely reviews made me laugh this morning, and had some great points.**_

 _ **Um yes, I re-read the previous chapter and there were a handful of editing mistakes that i thought I had fixed...maybe didn't save that draft? I dunno. But I will reload the chapter soon to get rid of those if possible. Thank you to the reviewer who pointed those out!  
**_

 _ **leave me some love, ne!**_

 _ **Inky**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**There has been a lot of really lovely reviews the last little while. I love the thoughtfulness put into them, the actual reflection on the chapters I post, not just for this story but also for the others. And even people encouraging me to not be worried about my lovely Flamer. You guys are great, thank you so much.**_

 _ **My Flamer and I understand each other though ;) ya know?**_

 _ **much love,**_

 _ **Inky**_

* * *

"No."

"Why not?" Sasu was staring at him in defiance, chin raised high in his attempt to stare him down. It was difficult since Sasuke had several feet on him, height wise. But Sasu was giving it his best shot and had even put his tiny stubby hands on his hips.

Sasuke blinked a couple of times at him and said the words he had always been so offended by as a child.

"Because I said so."

Behind her tiny knight Hina cocked her head at the adult version. "No jumping?"

"But Hina-chan wants to." Sasu seemed undeterred by Sasuke's authoritarian explanation. "It's big and fluffy."

They were discussing the bed. Sasuke's bed, which they had decided looked great for bouncing on. And little Hinata, being herself did not feel it right to jump on it without at least asking permission first. Sasu had been on board with the idea because Big Hinata as he called her in his head had happily let them jump on her futon the night before.

Now however he was realizing Big Sasuke was a meanie poo face and he didn't like him.

Sasuke however was unsure how he felt about someone calling his bed fluffy. Somehow that got under his skin in a way he had not expected. "I said no, Sasu. Go into the inner court yard and climb the trees or something." He muttered, turning back to the mess of scrolls and books he had spread out all over his dining room table. It was never used for dining, had been placed in the home by whoever he had hired to furnish the place and occasionally annoyed him because it collected more dust than any other thing in the house.

But in that moment it was proving to be the biggest work surface he had to spread out every piece of information he could gather in his house that might have something on time travel. Or Kami.

Sasu glared daggers at him even as Hina pulled on his little hand. "The trees in the court yard are pretty, I saw them through the window, Sasu-kun."

Wrinkling his nose with distaste still Sasu's full lips pulled tightly together into an almost pout and finally he turned back to Hina, face softening instantly. "Okay, let's go see."

Hand in hand they wandered down the dark hall leading to the high walled court yard that Sasuke hardly ever even remembered he had. Letting out a sigh of relief he turned back to the scrolls, trying to ignore the image of the two kids sprinting down the hall with hands clasped tightly together. The only way he was surviving the entire baby sitting situation was by not thinking about them as who they actually were.

Because then he had to think about the fact that Sasu's lips, which in turn were his lips had often been pressed to Hina's cheek, which in turn was...

Knock, knock, knock.

Frowning he straightened, and his eyes shot sharp to the back of the house where the kids had disappeared. They were out of sight and out of ear shot as far as he could tell. It was too soon since having returned for it to be Hinata so he walked slowly towards the door and stared at it for a long moment, contemplating not opening it before he heard the shout on the other side of the wood.

"Teme? I can tell you're in there don't be a jerk, open the door."

Wincing Sasuke didn't move, unmoved by the unpleasant request.

With a growing lack of certainty he called out, "What do you want?"

"You're seriously going to have a conversation with the Hokage through a door? Open the door. What is wrong with you?"

Sighing Sasuke opened the door just enough to peer at Naruto who was frowning at him in the morning light, blue eyes blazing by the glory of the spring day. "You are such an oddball, Sasuke. I cannot figure you out no matter how old we get."

"What do you want?" Sasuke jabbed, eyes flickering over the street. Down the road he could see workers were already gathering at one of the buildings that was being redone in traditional style, eyeing the hole the foundations were to go into and talking with a lot of gesticulating.

"I was hoping we could go for a quick spar. I managed to carve out half a day away from the office and I'm itching to punch your face." Naruto's smirk slowly drew one from Sasuke's. It sounded too good for a moment but Sasuke didn't let go of the door.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

Sasuke stared at him, trying to think of a reason. Cocking an eyebrow Naruto cocked his head too. "Like I said. Can't figure you out to save my life. Fine. Whatever. I'll just have to go find someone else to slam around."

"Where's Sakura?" Sasuke inquired, the word slam always had a way of bringing the color pink to mind now after years of watching her do just that.

"Shopping." Naruto shrugged. "There's a lot of prepping left to do, ya know?"

Sasuke wasn't sure he was following but suddenly a little giggle reached his ears from behind him, getting closer by the second.

"Right. I have to go." He stated thinly, glancing back over his shoulder and without another word he slammed the door leaving Naruto with his hands raised in confusion at the entrance to the Uchiha's house. "You strange anti social bastard." He grumbled affectionately before heading down the steps and away.

Inside Sasuke was staring, open mouthed at Sasu and Hina who had entered his house leaving a trail of something sticky and gold brown all over the floor with each step. It was on their hands and faces all the way to their elbows, in their hair, plastering one of Sasu's eyebrows in a crazy gravity defying poke of black. Hina had sticky bangs stuck to her forehead.

"What the...?" Sasuke began, taking a step forward and stopping when Hina smiled wide at him, shyly raising a sticky mass of dripping goo towards him.

"We...we found an abandoned bee hive, Uchiha-san!"

Sasuke stared at her for a moment, at her small mouth pulled into a sticky smile, at her pale eyes studying his face carefully, searching for something, her little fingers digging into the sticky mess, dripping slowly down her wrist.

Biting his cheek hard Sasuke extended his hand out, allowing her to dump the honey comb onto his open palm.

How long were they gone? Five? Ten minutes?

"I'm guessing there was one on the tree?" He murmured, glancing at Sasu who nodded, watching Hina lick her fingers slowly.

For a moment Sasuke tried not to think about what would have happened if the bee hive had been active rather than abandoned. And he also tried not to think about what Hinata would have done if she arrived to find the kids covered in bee stings and surely more than a little upset. He could almost see the narrowed gaze she would have leveled at him, and the way her pink mouth would have tightened.

Looking at the sticky mess in his hand he sighed. "Lets...get you guys cleaned." He murmured, heading towards the kitchen in search for something to put the goo he currently held in his hand.

"Yes, please." Hina's little voice agreed beside him, following close behind with Sasu bringing the rear.

"Can we have a bath?" Sasu inquired, the idea obviously seeming marvelous. Sasuke frowned a little as he scraped the honey comb off his hand. "I...suppose." He allowed slowly, dumping the whole mess on a plate before moving to wash his hands.

"We can have a bath Hina!" Sasu rocked on his feet back and forth and let out a little laugh when Hina smiled and nodded, one lonely lock of black hair sticking straight up with the help of the sticky honey.

Sasuke turned to frown at them. "Not... together..." he began but they were not listening.

"With bubbles." Hina's eyes were wide. Sasu nodded. "Maybe we can blow a big bubble. Like last time."

The words made Sasuke pause, staring at them.

"That one was so, so, so big." Hina whispered and she raised herself to her toes, stretching her hands wide over her head. "So big!"

"Humongous." Sasu smiled at her, nodding. "The biggest."

And suddenly Sasuke leaned against the sink he had been using to wash his hands, leaving the soap suds still on his palms remembering a giant bubble, tiny pale legs kicking inside a pretty kimono up high above him in a dimly lit forest. She was sitting on the compound wall, with a bubble wand, dark hair shiny in the mid afternoon light.

The memory came in fits and starts, dusty and full of creases as he unraveled it. Heart pounding he watched in awe as the kids talked incessantly at each other, eyes focused, admiring, addicted.

In love.

He had been in love.

Licking his lips he turned to wash his hands again, blinking rapidly as the memory settled more and more in his mind. He had been hardly more than a baby but he had been sure. One day he would marry a Hyuuga.

* * *

The market was a bustle of noise, as usual. Hinata walked quickly, glancing left and right at the bright colored fabrics that the vendors threw over their wood and metal supports to shade their wares on the cobble stone street. Shops hid behind them, separated only by the thin wooden walkways that clunked and clanked with the steps of shoppers moving fast through the shopping district.

One of them was her. Usually going to the market was a pleasant thing that she stretched out for a good portion of the day. Smelling the beautiful herbs on sale at the produce stand and examining the seasonal fruits piled into pyramids with their leafs making layers to support them. Living at the compound did not allow for a lot of the kind of shopping she liked to do. Groceries and necessities were simply not part of what was expected of her. The house was too large for her to maintain any part of it herself.

If she had not desired it, likely she would never had learned to cook. Thankfully the old chef who had snuck her sweets when her father wasn't looking all her growing up years had happily written out her recipes with care, watching as at first with shaky hands she had taken on the ladle and then with more confidence as she grew began to expand to more complicated dishes.

Her father had not been particularly pleased when he had found out but it was a harmless hobby he could not see a reason to deny. It was about as useful in his mind as pressing flowers which for some reason she had been encouraged to do. It had been many years since she had actually pressed any flowers however. Instead she collected herbs and special plants, archiving their medical properties which came in handy when the past Hokage Tsunade requested her hands as a med-nin.

So, with some mixed feelings she walked through the market partly in a hurry to get to the kids who surely would be starving by now with nothing to eat at Sasuke's house, and partly in love with the fact that she was getting a chance to actually buy the things she was looking at.

Bread and cinnamon buns at the bakery, fish at the mongers, fruits and vegetables at the produce stands including several different kinds of tomatoes. Rice, spices and a bamboo steamer big enough for a whole fish as well.

And as she went she asked for accounts to be opened, at first she had said for the Hyuuga House and then realized that someone would ask questions. Hesitantly, and a little worriedly she had changed her mind.

"Actually..." she murmured, shifting her weight as she blinked at the woman behind the counter of the clothing shop she was standing in. "Could... you please make the account to Uchiha Sasuke, please?"

Blinking rapidly the young lady had stared a moment too long and then smiled broadly to compensate. "O-of course, Hinata-sama." The question lingered in her eyes and Hinata blushing scarlet avoided her gaze turning instead to the handful of outfits she had on the counter for the children. Pajamas, underwear, socks, shirts, shorts, a dress for Hina and yukatas for both as the weather appeared to be getting warmer.

"That's it, I think." She finally sighed. "Could you please wrap and bag that for me?"

"Certainly." The young lady nodded, gathering the items one by one into parcels to be placed in one of Hinata's fabric bags she had brought from home.

The jingle of the door opening sounded merrily and she glanced back distractedly only to freeze as Sakura entered, her petite form unbalanced by the protruding belly filled with child. As their eyes met surprise and then panic fluttered through Sakura's emerald eyes before she quickly smiled wide. "Hinata!"

Hinata's face was less quick to recover, the pale blankness overwhelmed her for a second longer and with some force she lifted the corners of her mouth. "Sakura-chan. H-hello!"

"What are you doing? I haven't... um.. we haven't seen you in a couple of months now." Sakura walked over slowly and without meaning to her hand rested on her tummy. Her pink shirt was working hard to contain the ball of life within her and Hinata worked hard to keep her gaze from travelling to look at it.

"Yes. I've been busy." she lied, surprised that she sounded sincere. "You're looking wonderful." She added, a little more honestly. Pregnancy suited Sakura, like everything else seemed to but with some extra glitter. Her usually flawless skin shone and her hair was thick and silky. Her green eyes smiled as big as her shy smile. "Thank you. It's... getting near the end here, so we're just finishing up prepping. I'm here for more cloth diapers."

"Oh, I suppose that makes sense." Hinata nodded, looking around uncomfortably realizing she was in one of the few children's clothing stores in Konoha so of course she would run into Sakura here.

"You look like you've been really hitting the town though." Sakura continued after a steadily growing pause didn't seem to dissipate easily. Hinata blinked and when the pink haired girl nodded to her hands full of grocery bags Hinata let out a little nervous laugh. "Ah... yes... just... practicing some new recipes..."

 _This lying thing.. it's getting entirely too easy._

"Ah, well. I remember how fantastic your cooking has always been." Sakura smiled a little sadly at her then, noting at last the way the Hyuuga didn't meet her eyes, searching all over the place for a safe place to rest them instead of looking at her head on.

"You're looking really well though, Hinata." She added more softly.

Hinata stared at the floor where Sakura's pretty black heels shone in the light. "Thank you, Sakura." she murmured, just as quietly.

"Hinata-sama." The girl behind the counter called gently. "Would you like me to gift wrap the yukatas?" She lifted them up and Hinata blinked at the tiny suits. "Ah... no, thank you, just the same as the rest is fine."

"Those are adorable." Sakura smiled. "They're yours?"

"Um..." Hinata shifted again. "For some cousins of mine, for when they come to the wedding."

 _Entirely too easy. Seriously, Hinata._

"Ah." Sakura sounded out, looking puzzled. "I didn't think there was anyone on the guest list that was that young. When we were talking to Sasuke last I remember thinking if I had the baby before the wedding it would likely be one of the few kids in attendance."

"Everything is ready, Hinata-sama." The girl behind the counter called again mercifully and Hinata turned giving her a genuinely thankful smile as she took the bag filled with the little brown parcels.

"It was lovely to see you, Sakura-chan." She called, moving around her and out the door.

"Oh... bye... Hinata." Sakura waved although the brunette didn't turn around even as she passed the display window before disappearing from view.

* * *

She would have knocked politely. She had tried, in fact, except that her hands were so full she couldn't raise them and control them for a knock on the door that wouldn't smack the forty pounds of things she had on either hand so instead, feeling very lanky and clumsy she rapped on the door with her knee hard, sounding like she was trying to take it down in a siege.

Almost instantly the door opened and a frazzled looking Sasuke stared at her a moment. Her hair was...exciting, it had been blown about by the spring breeze happily trolling the streets and between that and the exertion of the eighty pounds of things she was carrying she had not bothered to fix it. Nor had she had the hand to do it with. Pink cheeked she blinked back at him.

"Sorry, I-" she began and jumped when he grabbed her arm and pulled her in, slamming the door closed and taking a handful of the grocery bags from her without a word.

"They want to bathe- they need to bathe." He began without even bothering with hellos, carrying the surprisingly hefty bags into the kitchen. "But I can't do it." He added firmly, as though expecting an argument.

"They...what?" Hinata followed, a little weary and confused. "What's wrong? Where are they?"

"Upstairs." Sasuke grabbed another handful of bags from her, frowning. "You walked here with all this?" He dropped the items with a clunk on the table and he could almost hear it groan in dislike. Hinata shrugged helplessly. "What's wrong with the kids?"

As she watched Sasuke's cheeks brightened and she stared.

Sasuke Uchiha was blushing.

"They want to bathe, but..." He paused, steeling himself as he suddenly busied himself with the items in the bags, pulling things out unnecessarily. He had no idea what he was doing. He never shopped for anything that wasn't going to be used that very moment so this was uncharted territory for him, but he needed to not look at her and he needed to do something with his hands so he unpacked.

"They probably should..." Hinata looked confusedly at him. "They haven't bathed for a bit."

"They want to bathe together." he clarified. At first Hinata just cocked her head at him. "That's... they're rather young, that should be fine, Hanabi and I-"

"No." Sasuke shook his head suddenly. "He's me." He looked at her sternly then, jaw tight, dark eyes focused on her face. "He's _me_ and she's _you_."

For a moment Hinata just stared back and he watched with a bit of satisfaction as color slowly crawled up her neck to her cheeks and ears, a rising tide of blood.

"I'll... fix it." She gasped, turning around and heading out of the kitchen quickly, although she didn't get far before the sound of a bang so loud it shook the roof made them glance at each other. In a flash they were rushing up the stairs and Hinata got to the doorway at the top of the staircase a second after he did.

Sasu and Hina were standing on Sasuke's destroyed bed which had clearly been made up but was now a crumpled mess of blankets and pillows.

Also the frame was broken, one leg stretched out awkwardly and the mattress sloped towards the floor sadly on that corner. Hina was hiding her face in her hands while Sasu looked sheepishly but bravely on at them.

"Oh shit." Sasuke began, feeling a bloom of irritation in his chest. Annoyed, he drew in a breath, but before anything else could come out of his mouth the still sticky Hina lowered her hands from her face and walked forward, eyes glittering with tears.

"U-u-uchiha-san, I'm... I'm so sorry.. I... Sasu... Sasu didn't think it was a good- I ... it was my idea-" she began ignoring Sasu who was trying to talk over her adamantly saying it was an accident.

Sasuke stared at the child as she approached, her little body trembling and tears already leaving streaks on her cheeks, fingers up to her face as though to hide herself although she fixed him with her stare despite it all.

Feeling more aware than usual of who this child was in that particular moment Hinata stepped into the hall, pressing her back against the wall, unconsciously burying her face in her hands the same way the tiny Hina was doing so inside the bedroom as she trembled.

Sasuke crouched down then, feeling something in his chest deflate as he blinked at her slowly, reaching out to take the tiny sticky hands from her face in one of his.

"Hina... it's okay." And he was surprised to realize it was. Furniture was hardly irreplaceable.

"I'm r-r-really sorry. I'm- I'm..." she began and the tears were starting to choke her tiny voice.

For a moment Sasuke was unsure of how to proceed and then slowly raised his hand to her cheek, brushing a tear away from the messy honey covered mess. "Hina, it's just a bed. Were you hurt?"

Blinking rapidly the little girl shook her head, and startling him pressed her cheek into his hand which dwarfed her tiny round face, closing her eyes.

"...t-thank you for...not b-being mad."

The simple action and the small words made Sasuke freeze studying the little being in his grip carefully, curiously.

From the hallway he heard a sigh and stood, releasing the child to run back to Sasu who gripped her tight in his comforting embrace.

Peering at the grown Hinata leaning against the wall with her hands likewise over her face Sasuke stared, watching her lean her head back before sighing again. "Sorry about that."

Very quietly Sasuke shook his head. "Hinata, it's just a bed."

Surprised to hear her name on his lips she turned, pale eyes puzzled as they met his dark gaze. After a moment he added. "Also, you deal with the bath thing, and we can call it even." He moved suddenly downstairs, leaving her alone in the hall frowning, but not upset.

* * *

Somehow she had managed to get the children clean, and dressed in new clothes they sat at the dining table that he had never used and she set plates of food in front of them from a kitchen he had never cooked in before.

Confusedly she had stared at him sitting on the couch, scroll in hand scanning over jutsu and Uchiha clan history looking for something even remotely similar to anything happening to them. Feeling the weight of her gaze he looked up and waited.

"Are you not hungry?" She cocked her head and her hair shimmered as she moved. "It's almost noon."

Sasuke blinked at her a moment and stood. "Oh..." he began moving slowly towards the table she had cleared, his books and scrolls neatly piled at the end far from the dishes the kids were using. There was a steamed fish and vegetables in a sauce, rice and fresh pickled cucumber salad. Without a word she handed him a plate and chopsticks.

Distractedly Sasuke tried to think back to the last time he had eaten anything at home that had been made at home. Nothing came to mind, except for broken images of dinners at a table where not only his brother sat, but his mother and father too. Nervously he wondered if he even knew how to do this.

"It's pretty yummy." Sasu commented with a mouthful, stabbing at a piece of broccoli with one of his chopsticks hard.

"Yeah." Hina added helpfully.

"Of course you think it's good." Hinata laughed quietly as she served herself some. "You're half starved. I could have fed you compost and you would have thought it was an emperors feast."

"No, yuck!" Hina gasped back, making Hinata grin. "No? So why were you stealing honey from the bees in Uchiha-san's court yard then?"

"No the bees moved." Sasu shook his head firmly. "Or they'd have bit us."

"Stung." Hinata corrected automatically and gently.

After a moment of deliberating if she was correct and it was either stung or bit Hina and Sasu became quiet, focused on putting as much of the food they had offered into their bellies. Their track record in this new place with meals had left them a little distrustful of actually being able to eat their fill.

While they focused Hinata turned to Sasuke who had not said a word for quite some time.

"Are you finding anything?" She nodded towards the piles of scrolls and books beside them and he followed her gaze before shaking his head slowly, mouth full.

Sighing she let her shoulders droop. "I guess it was a bit unlikely."

"If this has happened before I've never heard of it." He finally replied. "Not even in myths."

Tiredly Hinata set her chopsticks down, feeling less hungry than she had a few minutes ago. "I don't know how they're expecting us to do this."

"One of them is expecting we won't." He muttered darkly. Even just thinking of the gods made him irritable now.

Hinata frowned at her plate. "Susa."

"Hm."

"Trickster God of the Sea." She whispered. "It does appear to be a fitting name."

They were quiet for a moment, partly because Sasuke was busy chewing and partly because Hinata was thinking, disliking the turn her thoughts were taking, and hoping that Sasuke's were not heading in the same direction.

To her dismay when he finally spoke again he murmured. "I suppose you're going to have to start looking around."

She didn't have to ask him for what. Closing her eyes she pressed her palm into her eye, feeling like the painful pressure there was more pleasant even than the feeling in her gut.

"I've..." she paused and let out a deep heart felt sigh. "I've never once been on a date."

When she opened her eyes the way he was looking at her made her feel exposed, dark gaze lingering on her face and lips before murmuring. "No, I suppose you wouldn't have."

It didn't matter though, they both knew. If anyone had a chance of falling in love or more likely getting their heart broken. Their best bet... was her.

"I'm going to have to call Ino." Hinata whispered to herself, but Sasuke heard and pitied her even more.

* * *

 _ **If you want to read the memory that Sasuke was suddenly recalling in this chapter go to my profile and under my stories is my one shot dumping ground called Rain Drops. It is Chapter 5 It's called Bubbles and is essentially how Sasu and Hina from this story meet.**_

 _ **leave me some love, ne?**_

 _ **Inky**_


	5. Chapter 5

**_Hiiiii,_**

 ** _Here's another disliked chapter._**

 ** _I am in writers block guys. BLAH. I think once I push past this it will get better. Fingers crossed right?_**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

 ** _ps: flamer dear. three word flames are lame, you're back to that? you were improving so well. I am disappointed._**

* * *

In her presence there was the danger of withering to nothing, turning brittle like the leafs that fall from trees and dry to dust that holds together only briefly before disintegrating in a cool breeze.

His spirit, although insubstantial in the realm of the living had a sort of solidity in the other world that was akin to water, and when approaching other spirits he could feel the aura of who they were soft like the heat of a warm spring sun or cool like the kiss of a stream on sweaty skin.

No one had anything to hide in the spirit world. Thoughts and emotions were broadcast like flags in the auras and lies were not tolerated, so it came to no surprise that Neji Hyuuga fit in quite well here. He had never particularly liked being polite over honest, and in this place there was no distinction.

However, he did not like feeling brittle. And the Lady Sun, Goddess Ama always made him feel so.

"You called?" He sighed and as he appeared within the realm of her splendor he shivered and tried to contain the strain of his spirit within the fluid and pliable casing that held it. He could not look her straight on when she shone as she did, a mash of stars that blazed all together decorated the sparkling curtain that was her hair and her eyes shone with the heat of a furnace.

Noting his discomfort she let out a sound like twinkling bells and singing stars and as it echoed the ferocity of her holiness dissipated, muted behind a veil of normalcy.

Blinking rapidly Neji raised his head and was finally able to keep calm, thankful that she had chosen to mask herself before him. This way he felt less like he was having a conversation with the sun at arm's length.

"Neji Hyuuga." Her face when disguised as a human was still extraordinarily beautiful and had he been alive he probably would have had trouble keeping his heart beat at an even tempo but, he was in the discomforting luck of not having to worry about that.

Everything about her was too much. There was too much beauty so that words could not describe, too much velvet in her voice, too much power in the air around her so that the crackle of lightening followed her steps as she wandered towards him in the gloom of the pale afterlife.

"I see you have delivered your message to your cousin and the Uchiha as requested. I hope seeing her again was a pleasure to you." A thousand different voices seemed contained within her words, a thousand lives lived all making a choir that came from one throat. He closed his eyes against her magnitude of being and nodded. "I appreciate the opportunity to be a messenger, Lady Sun."

"Of course you do." Another voice drawled and to her right with a pop like the crack of thunder a man appeared, his lithe and graceful movements would have put the most beautiful woman on earth to shame and yet the sinuous power beneath the skin was undeniable. Dark hair, blue like the ocean traveled down his back and shifted in an unseen tide, untamed. Also untamed was the emotion in his eyes, at once amused, mocking and furious.

"You have given them all the answers. If they had had to figure it out on their own I would be winning this bet. As per usual you're cheating, Sister." Lord Susa growled, and somewhere in the world a tempest raged.

"Nonsense, Brother. It is because I have given them all the information that this bet will be in good form." Lady Ama let out a sigh as she flicked a fan open with her marvel of a wrist and batted the air around her blonde hair, glittering like molten gold that cascaded over the threads of the most wondrous kimono ever seen. In it the pastures of lands from time immemorial danced along the threads, past, present and future.

For a moment Neji swayed, while the gods discussed in front of him- or rather bickered- about the bet. Being in their presence was exhausting, like eating and sleeping excessively was exhausting. A nourishing way to feel like dying.

"You cannot keep helping them." Lord Susa muttered and his body fell without gravity, a leaf supported by an invisible wind until clouds arranged themselves to support his black yukata clad body. He relaxed into it as though languishing on a couch. "If you help them, I will be forced to even the odds by intervening."

"Do not go tricking them, they have enough to deal with. You know human hearts can only handle so much." Lady Ama's voice had gone soft and quiet, and like the feathery feel of a knife along skin it sliced through to her brother, her star eyes shining. "Do not forget that to win this bet fairly is the only way you will receive a free pass through the Fire Country to do what you will."

"Hm." The sound, although rude sounded amorous coming from the handsome Lord Susa as he languished on the cloud, stretching theatrically along it's softness. "You are no fun, Sister."

"I am a god. Fun is not a requirement."

"I disagree." He smirked and glanced at Neji whose spirit wavered in their presence, a quickly melting candle too close to the grate.

"This one is going to burst into sparkles if you don't put him back with the other spirits." Susa's smile was ferocious. Neji wondered if he actually wanted him put back or if watching him break apart at the over exposure was too fun for him to want to pass up.

"Neji, you are to keep an eye on the children." Ama continued, lifting a hand to envelope him in a bubble of warmth. Instantly he felt both better and worse at being cut off from their expelling power. Sighing he straightened a bit and was able to glance at her briefly. "The little ones?" He nodded. "I can guard them."

"You have the heart of a Warren, so I thought it fit, especially since your spirit is so attached to the girl." Ama cocked her head to the right and the earrings dangling from her ear sparkled, out in the universe beyond a new star was born due to the movement.

"Thank you, Lady Sun."

"Thank you, Lady Sun." Susa echoed childishly from his position on his cloud, eyes closed. "They are both going to end up heart broken anyway. Might as well speed it along." He muttered.

"Do not intervene." Ama stated again with a frown. Had Susa been a normal spirit or heaven forbid a human the words alone would have demanded obedience. As it were he just opened one glamorous eye at her and smiled widely.

Neji had a bad feeling about this.

"Go, they will only be able to see you if you wish it." Ama added, pressing one long finger to Neji's forehead where once upon a time a mark heinous to him had been placed. Now the point of contact glowed bright and instantly the soil of earth was reaching towards him, as his spirit plummeted from the heavens hard.

"Have fun!" Susa called, and waved, his long powerful fingers shifted. Neji's eyes widened as the two gods began to disappear from his sight. "No, Lord Sea- please don't-" But it was too late, in a breath the gods and heaven vanished from view and the darkness of stormy clouds enveloped him.

He entered the world of the living with a crash of thunder and as the clouds roared to meet the need of the lightening he sighed, knowing the trickster god had chosen for whatever reason to do something to him. He just didn't know what yet.

Shaking off the feeling of frustration with the deities he began wandering towards the Uchiha house. He had charges to care for. Despite the lack of prestige in the job, he was secretly feeling more glad than he had in some time. Caring for people was he was made for. Trying not to smile too openly he headed off.

* * *

The rain appeared out of nowhere. One second the workers on the newest building in the Uchiha compound were busily sweating in the early spring sun and then abruptly lightening in the distance and booming thunder came crashing overhead, followed closely by a downpour so unexpected that the supplies had to be carried beneath the still unfinished roof of the house being erected.

"What a storm!" One of the workers gasped, taking the 100 pound bag of cement from Sasuke as he walked into the unfinished structure.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, eyes flickering up to the rolling clouds. A tempest so abrupt seemed unnatural. One of the few pieces to the puzzle he was currently living that he actually had was that one of the gods on his black list was Susa. God of Storms.

"I should go." He muttered, glancing back to his home. In it he hoped the two children with the familiar faces and the woman he had been thoroughly surprised by lately were safe.

"Please do, Uchiha-sama." The men nodded, waving him off. Thankful for the help but obviously more comfortable with him in a leading role they nodded at the house and he stepped out into the downpour, running quickly beneath the pouring river until he burst into the house.

He nearly slammed the door into his Sasu's little head which was laying on the foyer floor, with Hina beside him, looking up at the skylight above where the rain was pelting hard.

"Sasu." Sasuke snapped, having had to skip over him and between their tangled legs to avoid stepping on any fragile baby limbs. "That is not a good place to rest."

"We're watching the rain." Sasu answered by way of explanation, and argument in one. "We like it."

Unable to come up with a reply that wouldn't result in a long winded argument with his four year old self Sasuke headed into the kitchen, removing wet articles of clothing as he moved.

"Uchiha-san?" Hinata's voice called and he peered into the brightly lit room, freezing at the sight of her.

Her hair was up away from her face in a ponytail that revealed the smooth elegance of her neck and she was wearing a white apron that was surprisingly clean considering almost every surface in the kitchen was covered with loaded dishes. There was tempura and rice, bok choi in sugared soy sauce, spiced pork cutlets and ginger glazed fish, pickled vegetables and bean curd buns, stuffed sweet rolls and vegetable and sprout salad. Miso steamed in a pot on the stove and jars of honey, jam and something else he didn't recognize sat still hot from being recently cooked by the window sill cooling.

"What... are you doing?" He gasped.

"I... I wasn't sure how much time I would have to cook in the next few days, I have training at the hospital to take over Sakura's position once she goes on maternity leave and I didn't want the children to be hungry-" she turned and stared back at him, surprised by the awed and slightly overwhelmed expression that filtered through his usually stoic mask.

"I'm sorry! I'll clean it all up before I go!" She started, misunderstanding.

"No... I... that's fine." He started. The house smelled wonderful, if a little bewildering since it had never had the scent of fresh garlic being fried or ginger being grated before. Standing there with her chopsticks raised and her apron on she looked familiar in an otherworldly sort of way. In a way that made his stomach hurt.

Hinata blinked at him a couple more times and then cocked her head, her black hair dancing behind her at her movement.

She reminded him... of his mom.

"I have to be at the Hokage tower." He began, frowning a little at himself and the correlation he had made between the two women. It made him uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that he was actually a little angry and frustrated he sat down at the table covered with food. "I can't have the kids here all day tomorrow."

"Oh." Hinata stared at him. "I have to be at the hospital, Sakura is due pretty soon, if I don't know what I'm doing-"

"I already put off Naruto once today." Sasuke interrupted. "I can't do it again."

"...but..." Hinata lowered the chopsticks and shifted her arms behind herself to fidget with them behind her back. "I...I can't have the children either, Uchiha-san."

For a moment they just stared back and forth, ignoring the giggling sounds of the children that were causing so much trouble in the foyer when suddenly and with a pop that made both the shinobi snap weapons out of their hands Neji appeared with a cloud of mist that dissipated as he glanced over his shoulders at two poofy feathered wings attached to his back.

"Damnit that imbecile of a god. Doesn't he have floods to stop or evil to destroy." He growled, spinning a little as he tried to get a better look at the feathered protrusions coming from his shoulder blades.

Hinata's face went from startled and then deadly to overjoyed. "Neji-nii!"

"Hina." He turned then, remembering he was suddenly visible. "Hello, cousin."

"You're...winged." Sasuke supplied helpfully, to which Neji's eyebrows shot down, angry spears of expression. "Yes. That damn Susa."

"Are you allowed to curse a god like that?" Hinata looked uncomfortable, hands fluttering in front of her.

"Yes. I'm not pleased with their treatment of us when we don't insult them." Sasuke added with an irritable tone. "And you're dead, there's not much they can do to you."

"This." Neji threw his thumb over his shoulder at the wings. "That damn Susa did this, so there's plenty. Forget the rules- what have you two been doing to break this thing? I'm tired of dealing with that pompous brat of a deity. Tell me one of you already had someone they were interested in."

At this both Sasuke and Hinata looked away nervously, Hinata shifting to the stove to stir the miso with a ladle idly.

"Neither of you?" Neji turned his furious glare on Sasuke. It had a little less oomph in it considering the fluffy wings, but Sasuke kept his face perfectly serious, mentally patting himself on the back for his effort. "You're engaged aren't you? Shouldn't this be falling on your shoulders right now?"

"I'm engaged to your entire family essentially." Sasuke replied cooly, picking a fried tomato that looked particularly good on a plate in front of him. "Hanabi just happens to be the one they've chosen to have present at all times."

"It was a beneficial arrangement for both." Hinata added softly. "Hanabi was happy with the match."

Neji was quiet for a moment, glaring at the Uchiha although he knew his cousin- or had known her before he'd died and could just see the little gears in her mind working away at the problem of marriage and coming up with the situations she would be okay with entering into such an arrangement.

He could just see how love would have not made it to the list of requirements.

"Great." Neji sighed, turning to Hinata sadly. "So then..."

"...um..." Hinata put the lid on the miso and stood there staring at the stove. "...I... I have...to call Ino."

"Ugh." her cousin's wrinkled nose was a brief joy to see considering she had missed that annoyed expression for years and softly she smiled at him. "I'll... do what I can, of course."

"Don't take your time." Neji muttered, already becoming see through as he spoke. "I'm not supposed to give you any more information, but that damn god decides to-" he glared again at the wings fluttering on his back in response to his annoyance and turned to look at them stubbornly. "I'm telling you things I shouldn't, just to annoy him, but listen carefully. He's never played fair in any bet he's held with his Sister. He will try to mess this up somehow if things seem to be starting to go well. Or if things are too boring for him he will stir the pot somehow. The kids have been here a few days, don't let him get bored- get a plan in place. Do it now."

And with the last word he smiled at his cousin, and glared at Sasuke, disappearing like he had not been there at all.

"...I'm disliking his visits." Sasuke's voice broke the silence. "And it's not even because he's dead."

"Ugh." Hinata sighed, plopping herself down on the chair opposite to him, shoulders defeated. "I have to go home... I need to get a message to Ino if I'm going to have her..." she paused then, face twisting with dislike at the next words. "...if I'm going to have her set me up with someone."

It was like she had decided to use profanity, the words came out askew and uncomfortable from her mouth.

"The kids can stay here tonight. About tomorrow..." Sasuke began then, watching her stand and start removing her apron.

"They're just going to have to stay here while we're out." Hinata sighed, shaking her head. "I don't like that plan, but I cannot miss this training session, both Sakura and Tsunade-sama will be there."

"Fine." Sasuke muttered, moving to stand as well as she headed out of the kitchen into the living room where the kids were still sitting, gazing up at the sky light.

"Well, there's... plenty for you all to have for dinner and probably breakfast tomorrow, and in the fridge there are obento." She murmured, gathering her coat from the hook by the door, stepping over the splayed limbs all over the floor.

"Sasu, you need to move." Sasuke instructed and Sasu let his dark eyes wander to the tall man, sticking his tongue out only for a second before Hina stood. "Let's go play, Sasu-kun."

Like magic he was up and out of the way with her, rushing down the hall.

"He won't listen to a word I say, but Hina so much as opens her mouth..." Sasuke began distastefully.

"Ask her to do things instead." Hinata muttered, opening the door to the thunder and rain pouring down, she studied her feet for a moment. "I know... I always listened to anyone older than me so..." she shrugged. "She'll listen to you."

For a moment he just looked at her, her bowed head and her hands clasping her jacket closed around her torso, remembering again that the little girl just down the hall was her. Holding on to the little boy's hand. His hand.

This was all so strange.

"Okay." He nodded, and then she was gone, disappearing into the pelting storm.

For a moment he stood there, eyeing the door and then turned, walking down the hall. "Hina... can you come have something to eat for dinner?"

Instantly Sasu was frowning at him from one of the doorways, peeking behind him was Hina.

"Okay, Uchiha-san!" She nodded big pale eyes fixed on Sasuke's face with something he wasn't sure how to name, although... if he allowed himself to think about it for a moment he would say it might even have been...affection.

Beside her Sasu gave her a look that said he felt a little betrayed, but for the rest of the night there were no more arguments from the Uchiha side of the household.

* * *

Arriving at the Hyuuga Compound soaking wet from the chaotic storm outside would have been cause enough to alarm her father and sister. Especially recently that she had been a little reclusive and complaining of feeling ill.

But showing up when everyone thought that you were spending the day sleeping off an undiagnosed illness had a way of getting the servants chattering.

Not unkindly, she had to admit, as they all seemed to worry about her incessantly in their care but it did have repercussions she could have done without.

Standing in the lobby of smooth polished wood and elegant paintings Hinata smiled as she handed her soaking wet jacket to one of the girls who rushed out to meet her at the door, while another took her soaking shoes and another handed her a towel, fluffy and warm as though they had anticipated this possibility and been prepared.

Her sister entered in a cloud of irritation that seemed to dim the lights and with a swish of her elegant kimono and her dark hair she made all but one older servant helping Hinata disappear.

"Where have you been? Father and I were under the impression that you were not feeling well. I thought you were safely at home this whole time."

"Sorry, Sister." Hinata replied lightly, trying to remember that despite Hanabi's tone her words conveyed she cared. "I was feeling confined so I went out for a walk to stretch my legs and breathe some fresh air."

Hanabi's eyes though equally pale seemed darker by comparison and she frowned a little, hands in small loose fists at her sides. "I wish you would inform us of your whereabouts. You are a daughter of the main house you cannot just disappear like that."

For a long moment Hinata simply moved the towel over the long soaking tendrils of her black hair, her eyes focused on the liquid being removed from her body before she said softly. "I am a shinobi, Sister. I am still technically on active duty... perhaps you are worrying unnecessarily." Her eyes flickered up finally, softening her words with a smile. "Although, the concern you voice warms my heart, I will admit."

Lips pursed into a thin line Hanabi turned her head away. "Shinobi or not. There's been enough kidnapping attempts on you to make me wary." she started away then, throwing over her shoulder. "I hope you are still keeping up with your training."

The jab was ill timed and Hinata winced against it, laying her hand lightly on her own towel covered head with a sigh as she watched her sister's elegant graceful form disappear around a corner.

Beside her the servant woman who held Hinata's wet things studied her with gentleness. "We all know your strength, Hinata-sama." She smiled and bowed, moving towards the kitchens to wash the clothing she held in her arms.

Hinata blinked mildly at her, surprised before whispering. "Thank you..." and letting out another tired sigh began the long trek to her rooms, hoping not to encounter her father also. One tongue lashing was enough for one day.

* * *

He had thought that it wouldn't worry him, going into the Hokage's office and spending the day there working with the kids at his house. Of all the places in the village for them to hide his home was likely the best one. No one visited because everyone knew who he was, reclusive, slightly antisocial. Still a little frightening.

But, as he left with strict instructions not to open the door not to leave the house and not to turn on the stove he realized he couldn't stop thinking about all the random things he had thought were good ideas as a child. His memories failed him somewhat of the age that Sasu was at that moment but he remembered some things he did as a slightly older Sasu and they were not safe.

Not safe at all.

Eyes trained on the blonde before him standing behind the giant Hokage desk he tried to pay attention. That was the intention.

However all he could picture were his weapons and the fact that they were in his closet in his room where the kids had slept and felt comfortable wandering around. Could they reach his katana up high?

Had he been able to use chakra to walk the walls and ceiling at that age? He couldn't remember.

"Sasuke?"

Blinking dark eyes rapidly Sasuke stared at Naruto, who had raised an eyebrow quizzically. "You... okay?"

"Yes. Sorry." He sat then, when usually he would just stand and blinked rapidly at his friend, trying to not think about bleeding out toddlers.

"You've been strangely spacey today." Naruto muttered quietly, looking subdued. He passed him a handful of papers and Sasuke took them although he didn't look closely at them. "The wedding has been an exhausting business." He finally conjured up something that sounded half plausible if a little unlike him to say but Naruto seemed to buy it.

"Oh?" He straightened, as if surprised to hear him sharing. "I was wondering about that. Is everything okay?"

"Yes." Sasuke lied through his teeth realizing no, actually everything was decidedly not okay.

"Wow, for a ninja your lying could use some work." Naruto's smirk was bright and unoffended. "I do hear your fiance can be a little...demanding."

For a moment Sasuke was confused. In his mind the words Hinata and demanding were about as far apart as east to west but then before his mouth could stupidly spit out anything he balked.

NO.

Hanabi. He was engaged to Hanabi, the second daughter not the...

Clearing his throat lightly he nodded. "She is... an heiress. It seems to come with the territory."

"I still don't get it. But it's your life, I suppose." Naruto's blue eyes bore into his, all amusement gone from his face as if looking for something in his friend that would not be given freely. "There's literally nothing you can't do without the Hyuuga. Why get tied into a family like that?"

Sasuke shifted slightly, and pondered answering at all. He had not wanted to discuss it with Naruto which in turn meant he had not wanted to discuss it with anyone. When the council approached him with the proposal of the marriage he had been uninterested, that is until he realized the sheer number of them that arrived.

All their Hyuuga eyes matched, all their expressions were familiar. They moved like a school of fish around each other, or rather more... like a pack of wolves on the hunt.

His next goal, the rebuilding of his clan would require wolf packs to keep his children safe. Eyes like his could start wars. And if the war they had just gone through had taught him anything it was that he could not and would not be enough alone. He needed help.

Not to mention, the power behind children graced with both the Byakugan and Sharingan had not escaped his attention. He was not particularly sentimental when it came to marriage, so why not?

Why not?

Thinking of Hanabi now he was starting to come up with a few answers to that question. Perhaps a little too late.

"Anyway." Naruto continued with a huff of air that signalled he was tired of waiting for a reply to his question. "Let's get this over with please? I'm starving and if I don't make an effort to get the hell out of the building for lunch I don't get a break."

"I..." Sasuke paused, reaching behind him to retrieve the bento Hinata had prepared the night before. "I actually have food with me."

Slowly the blue eyes before him rose and stared first at the bento neatly wrapped in fabric in Sasuke's hand and then to the pale face looking steadily at him. "Who made that?"

"No one."

"Magic?" Naruto's tone dripped with innocence.

"I did." Sasuke side stepped, lowering the thing and realizing his mistake.

"Um. I've seen you try to cook. There's a reason you eat out with me all the time. I know it's not because you miss me."

"Nevermind." Sasuke grabbed the papers he had been ignoring a moment ago, suddenly feeling they had to be of monumental importance. The blue eyes across the desk did not waver, not did the feeling that he was being dissected and found out.

"Whatever you're hiding." Naruto pointed a pen at him threateningly. "It'll come out in the open eventually. Just tell me now so I don't have to look like an idiot when I try to back you up."

Frowning Sasuke didn't bother raising his gaze, flipping through the documents in his grip. "What are you talking about?"

"Fine. Be that way." His friend shook his head and signed something without really looking too closely at it. "I'm here, whenever you decide to think straight."

Sasuke glanced up at him briefly, pondering. But he kept his mouth shut even during lunch when Naruto teased him incessantly about the bento.

* * *

Hina spotted him first, pale eyes widening and her hand tightening around Sasu's causing him to look over and freeze as well as a shadowy form took shape among the grass and cat tails of Sasuke's ignored inner court yard.

"It's that man." Hina whispered, and Sasu stood in front of her a little, blinking at him rapidly. "The ghost guy." He agreed. "But... he didn't seem like a scary ghost last time."

"R-right." Hina whispered again, and little Sasu could feel the soft tickle of her breath on his neck.

Only, as the slowly solidifying figure became more and more visible their little frowns deepened until Sasu was backing up into Hina, trying to put as much space between himself and the tall broad shouldered man that appeared instead of who they were expecting.

Smiling languidly the blue haired giant cocked his head at them. "Oh don't be scared." And his voice was at once the soft trill of birds and the fluting sounds of the wind through reeds. Hina let out a breath in surprise, staring at the blazing blue storm that raged within his eyes.

"Wow." She whispered. Sasu was also in a sort of stupor, although his was more from wariness than awe. This giant was easily taller than anyone else he had ever seen, taller than Big Sasuke, and with shoulders that looked capable of carrying immense weight. Dressed in a simple dark blue yukata that matched the dark aqua of his eyes he seemed normal only if you looked at him out of your peripheral vision. Looking straight on made Sasu's stomach hurt with anxiety and fear.

"What do you want?" He snapped, little voice wavering only a bit near the end.

"Nothing." The man raised a hand to his chest in surprise and the long fingers there were lined with nails too long to be used for anything other than gauging. "I just wanted to check on you. Do you know who I am?"

Slowly the children shook their heads, although something sat unsteadily at the tips of their tongues, a knowledge that this person was not to be trifled with, despite the soft feeling of calm that seemed to want to overwhelm them both.

Taking a slow step towards them the man's smile broadened. "I am impressed, even so small, you are fighting my spell." He cocked his head the other way, studying them from a new angle as though that would reveal their secrets. "Most would just drool at the thought of speaking with me."

"S...stay back." Sasu replied, taking another step backwards, pushing Hina with him.

"I am not going to hurt you, little one. I figured you were bored." He crouched suddenly, and it only seemed to make him look bigger. Crouched down he was still significantly taller than Sasu and yet his face and the overwhelming perfection was too close to avoid.

"Lord Susa." A new voice broke into the stillness and Hina jumped behind Sasu, grabbing onto his shirt for a second. Behind her stood the ghost from before, the man that had called himself Neji, like her cousin. Bright Hyuuga eyes looked at the now frowning God of Oceans. "You are not to interfere in the bet, as instructed by Lady Ama."

"I am not interfering." Susa grumbled, straightening and although the sun had been out in a cloudless spring morning wet from last night's torrent it seemed a cold breeze wafted through the air abruptly, ripping rather than gliding as it passed through their clothes and hair. Hina and Sasu shivered into each other, staring at the swimming darkness that loomed within the blue orbs of light that were the god's eyes.

"Hinata, Sasuke." Turning to look at the ghost behind them the children instantly stepped back towards the safety of his voice, although Sasu was a little worried considering he had seen the way Big Hinata passed through him once before.

"Don't scare them." Lord Susa chided lightly, his voice amused. "Look, they're scared of me now. Good job."

"Perhaps that is for the best." Neji frowned, glancing back to see his wings still protruding from his shoulder blades. "And please, get rid of these things."

"Oh." And at that Lord Susa let out a laugh, a sound like the cascading waterfalls in the empty forest sounded. "No, I think they suit you. Now you're a guardian angel after all."

"Ugh." Neji growled, knowing there would be no undoing it now.

"Anyway, I came to tell the kids about a candy store I saw that is right in the middle of the village. You know the village, right? It's right by the Hokage tower." His eyes shone with electric power, gazing into the children's faces with insinuation. "Wouldn't it be nice to go check it out?"

"No. That's-" Neji began and stopped when the god rose to his full height, eyes smiling without mirth despite his amused tone. "Oh, I have not done anything. Don't be silly, I would never mess with a bet. I am a god after all. Whatever decision they make is up to them. They are human." He gazed down at the children who looked a little confused and sleepy in his presence. "Their will cannot be tampered with, after all."

"But you suggested they disobey-" Neji began again and stopped once more, a little irritated with himself that he couldn't argue with the full weight of a god's eyes on him in disapproval.

"Oh. I think you're not done looking saintly enough." Susa muttered, touching his chin with his fingers idly as he gazed at Neji once more, then a smile wicked as it was ethereal rose to his face. "Oh I know. Here." And with a snap of his fingers and a pop like a balloon Neji closed his eyes before looking up above him.

Sure enough, a halo hovered over his head, glowing and soft and annoying. "Ugh." He grumbled.

"That should do it. Maybe next time I'll grace you with a harp." Then to the kids, "Save me some candy." He added, winking before vanishing in a flash of light.

The moment he disappeared the wind shifted again, soft once more in it's swirls and the sun brightened, warming their cool flesh.

Dazed they looked at each other curiously, a little confused about what had happened, none of their memories or thoughts about the last few minutes felt quite reliable enough to trust or sharp enough to remember correctly.

"I kind of want candy." Hina admitted, looking forlorn. "A big lollipop."

"A loli?" Sasu cocked his head, trying to remember why he didn't think this was a good idea, but unable to bring it to mind.

Behind them Neji looked down and huffed again with irritation. He was invisible again. Fantastic.

"Don't leave the house." He stated sharply anyway, and watched as the kids tensed, listening to a voice that wasn't quite loud enough.

"...we should go for a loli." Hina continued. "We can sneak."

"I like sneaking." Sasu admitted, walking with her towards the door of the house.

"Don't leave the house!" Neji shouted after them, following close behind and Hina turned searching through him at the empty hall curiously, although her eyes never focused on him.

Throwing his hands up in defeat Neji sighed, trailing behind the toddlers as they opened the door with some difficulty, Hina had to climb onto Sasu's back to reach the lock and door knob. But once open they glanced around and on tip toes snuck into the brightness of the sun, closing the door behind them.

"...great." Neji grumbled, passing through the door without effor.

And he trailed them as they ran from tree trunk to tree trunk, heading straight for the village's heart.

* * *

"Hinata?"

Sakura blinked at the brunette repeatedly, searching her face curiously. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Hinata jumped, looking at the pink haired woman before her as if waking from a dream. "Ah! Sorry... I was just..."

She blinked again, trying to think of something to say. Somehow explaining she was worried that Sasuke and Hinata from two decades ago might be in trouble at Sasuke's current house seemed like an impossible thing to answer with.

"You sure you're okay?" Sakura asked again, reaching to put a hand on Hinata's shoulder. Gracefully and without looking obvious Hinata made an effort to step back, taking a stack of blankets from one of the hospital shelves lining the halls. "I am fine, thank you, Sakura. I'm just a little tired." she smiled in a way that didn't feel quite natural on her face and headed down the hall. Behind her the pink haired med nin just sighed and put a hand to her belly tiredly.

On the other side of the nursing station counter Tenten eyed her. "Give her some time, Sakura. She's still adjusting."

"I know." Sakura muttered, moving to sign off on something that was sitting on the clipboard on top of the counter. "I just... wish she wasn't pretending everything was fine if it isn't."

"It _is_ fine." Tenten muttered, feeling the usual over protective response to Hinata she always got. Somehow after Neji's passing she had absorbed all of his instinct to keep his little cousin safe and even though she wasn't able to be around as much as she would like for Hinata through the last few years she always backed her in any way she could. Including getting Naruto and Sakura to give her some space after Naruto turned Hinata down and promptly proposed to the girl he had always been in love with.

"If it wasn't fine she wouldn't be here." She added, motioning to the Hyuuga down the hall talking with Tsunade about aspects of her leadership she would need to work on when she finally took over for Sakura. "Ino and I were both willing to take your place so you could have time at home with the baby, Sakura. Hinata knew that. She wanted to help. She wouldn't have taken Tsunade's offer on otherwise."

"Yes." Sakura nodded, handing her the clipboard. "You're right. I just miss... the lack of tension I suppose."

"It'll get there." Tenten shrugged, taking the item carefully.

"She's been busy though, so that does make me feel better. I bumped into her in town yesterday and she had was carrying so many things. If it hadn't all been groceries I would have thought she had broken down and tried some retail therapy." Sakura tapped her nails on the counter lightly as she glanced back to see Hinata nodding at Tsunade animatedly.

"Groceries?" Tenten blinked at her lightly. "Weird."

"I know... I thought she would have servants to do that kind of thing for her. She was picking stuff up at the kids store too though." Sakura cocked her head at Tenten then, looking puzzled.

Unwilling to engage in anything that might put Hinata in a bad light Tentne shrugged again, turning to her work once more. "Probably something for the wedding coming up. I hear Hanabi is being a little demanding about it."

"Yeah I bet." Sakura laughed and shrugged as well. "I suppose you're right."

"Sakura, let's go!" Tsunade called from down the hall.

"Duty calls." the girl sighed, flashing Tenten a goodbye smile before heading towards the ladies waiting at the end of the hall.

"Bye." Tenten's soft reply hardly reached her ears as she approached, hand on her belly. Soon she would be waddling and that's when she had decided she'd quit the "I'm a capable woman and I can work until birth" routine. No one in Konoha needed to see her waddling, and that was that.

"I would like you to go over some of the tissue binding that we worked on recently." Tsunade began as they wandered down the hall, Hinata on Tsunade's right and Sakura on her left. "I have a case downstairs in emergency that need stitches but the child is so young, I would much rather you did it by chakra, Sakura. It'll be a good opportunity for Hinata to get a feel for the manipulation of the tissues and this way the boy won't have scarring."

"How old?" Sakura frowned, their clicking steps down the hall punctuated by the doors they pushed open hard as they walked.

"Oh I think this one is about four." Tsunade murmured, thinking. "From what I understand someone left a katana out and the little guy thought it would be a good idea to have a look at it and next thing they know his arm is bleeding all over."

"Four?" Hinata's face had paled beside them, her eyes wide. "Who... who is it?"

"I don't know, I haven't actually seen him yet." Tsunade blinked at her, surprised by the question. "I was just given the report by one of the nurses."

The queasy feeling only increased as they approached the ER and with the crowds bustling in and out of the doors the breeze floated into the clinic, ruffling the bed curtains and the medical reports on clip boards hanging behind the nurse's station.

With a nod and a point of a pen one of the nurses directed them to a corner of the ER where a pair of tiny feet stuck out from behind the curtain laying on the bed in a very forlorn sort of fashion.

Panic rising Hinata stood back as Sakura and Tsunade walked around the bed and Tsunade ripped the curtain open all the way revealing to Hinata's utter relief a pouting tear filled face she did not recognize.

O _h lord, Sasu... I hope you're safe at home..._

"So." Tsunade began pulling the bloody bandages off the boy's arm carefully. "Hinata, come closer, Sakura can show you how she molds the chakra before inserting it into the patient-" she paused, watching Hinata's pale face struggle to normalize. "Hinata? Are you all right?"

"I'm... so sorry." Hinata whispered softly, raising her gaze up to meet the green eyes of her friend and the concerned expression on Tsunade's face. "I'm not feeling very well at all." And it was true too, her stomach felt like it was being squished inside her torso and the thought of finding Sasu bleeding the way this little boy was and Hina crying alone with him was enough to make her dizzy.

"You did look a little pale since you got here." Sakura admitted, straightening with one hand on her lower back to support her belly. "Do you need to sit down?"

"...I... I may need to go home. I apologize, Tsunade-san, Sakura-chan. I know you both took time out of your day to be here..." Hinata stuttered, her eyes trained on the little boy's tear filled gaze and the bloody mess that was his forearm.

"Well... it's all right, we covered most of the paper work, and Sakura can show you this some other time. Hinata, are you sure you're okay?" Tsunade moved towards her and Hinata jumped back a step, blinking. "Oh yes. I'm... I'll be all right. I think I will just head home, however. I'm very sorry. Thank you so much for being so understanding."

"No, it's okay." Sakura blinked at her. "We're almost done anyway, you would have been off in a couple of hours."

"I'll make sure to schedule something to go over what you were about to teach me." Hinata continued, walking back a couple paces before bowing briefly. "Thank you. Bye."

And then she was gone, walking rapidly out the double doors and down the hall. Puzzled the blonde glanced at Sakura thoughtfully. "Well..."

"I think she's okay." Sakura muttered without a lot of conviction. "I think she's fine."

The thing was, she didn't want Hinata to just be fine or just okay. Smoothing a hand tiredly over her round belly and the kicking little being inside of her she sighed. She wanted her friend to be happy.

* * *

He wasn't even sure what he had said to Naruto to get to go home early. Probably nothing, if he was honest. There was not a lot of lying he could do with a straight face that Naruto of all people would believe so after stating he was heading out earlier than expected he had probably just shrugged in reply to the questions the blonde had leveled at him.

He couldn't keep this up, eventually he'd come sniffing around the house and then what?

 _Oh yeah, hey I forgot to mention how my five year old me is hanging out at my house. Sorry._

No. No that would not work.

Preoccupied with his thoughts he skipped the leisurely stroll back home and arrived in five minutes flat, using more energy than he had in a while without being at a training site or in a dojo and to his surprise when he materialized in front of his house he felt the slam of someone crash into his back at his door.

"Ah!" Hinata's voice called and he glanced back, having already known it was her by the scent she brought with her from the hospital. Bleach and her underlying flowery perfume. "Sorry, Uchiha-san!" She gasped, taking a step back. "You... you appeared out of nowhere!"

"I was in a hurry." He muttered, moving to unlock the door only to pause at the feel of the lock already displaced. Trying not to growl he flung the door open, scanning the space rapidly in the glow of his sharingan only to have her confirm their dread with a sigh that was surprisingly close to a growl of her own.

"They're not here."

"You're here early." He realized, turning to glance back at her. Hinata blinked at him, as if puzzled by his statement. "You are too..."

"I was-" he began, starting to say he was anxious but the idea of admitting such a thing made him choke on the word. Worried was also not in his usual vocabulary. Concerned? What had he been?

"I thought they might destroy the house." He finally finished, a little coldly for good measure. Hinata's pale byakugan lined eyes stared into his face for a minute and then a grin flashed over her face, tempered by her own worry. "I'm sure they're all right, we just... need to find them."

Unnerved by her ability to see right through him he stepped out into the street again, glancing back at the workers near by who were eyeing them. Hopefully they would not question his soon to be sister in law stopping by abruptly in the middle of the afternoon. Wincing he turned back to her.

"You... we should go. Do you think you can locate them with your Byakugan?" He glanced at her and started at the look of consternation that crossed her face, mouth down turned a little as she frowned at him. "Well? You're a daughter of the main house, I would assume-"

"I have to study you for a minute." She muttered, standing back a step and he paused, once more feeling that crawling feeling of anxiety over his limbs as she focused her byakugan lined gaze on him, eyes travelling over his body slowly. "What... are you doing?"

"You chakra signature will be similar to Sasu's." She murmured, blinking rapidly as she absorbed the information, without a word she walked past him outside and in a few elegant jumps had begun to climb the swaying pine tree beside the house, reaching the top without trouble.

"You can locate him based on my chakra signature?" Sasuke began, surprised and a little impressed if he allowed himself to even think it. Hinata's glance surveyed the stretching village beyond them, a mish mash of houses and electrical wires, the hokage mountain behind the tower glowered from afar and the sun blazed up above it all, still a little weak from the recent winter but doing it's best.

"I'm a daughter of the Hyuuga main house." Hinata replied lightly, if a little bitingly. "Of course I can locate him with that."

Smirking a little Sasuke eyed her, wondering how he had not noticed her existence before when her eyes widened a little. "Oh..."

"Oh?"

"I see them. I'm pretty sure it's them... and if I'm right, Sakura...and...they're right by them..." Hinata's expression flickered from worried to full on panic.

"Is Naruto with her?"

"Yes."

That was all she had to say, together and in a flicker of hardly visible movement they shot forward towards the shopping district, hoping against hope that Naruto and Sakura of all people didn't notice the two wandering children holding hands.

* * *

 _ **Well... there are the gods ladies and gentlemen. I'm unsure how I feel about them. I kind of like Susa. He seems like a cheeky bugger.**_

 ** _leave me some love, ne?_**

 ** _Inky_**


	6. Chapter 6

**_*singing* flamer dear, I love you, you're so cute, even when you toot, you're a hoot when I read, your silly inconsistencies *singing*_**

 ** _I hope I meet you one day. I'll hug you and hug you and you'll hate it and it'll be glorious._**

 ** _;)_**

 ** _Inky_**

* * *

They moved through the village as though they were made of the same substance, mostly shadow, and just enough light to find their way. Hinata's body was a form of calligraphy and he could read her thoughts in the tilt of her head and a rise of her shoulders. Their movement through the houses and shops, weaving through the tangled electrical wires and fences made him wonder again how he had overlooked her.

With a twist of her head and a flash of her Byakugan lined eyes she motioned to the shopping district and the stretch of store fronts lining either side of the dirt cobble stone street.

It was the middle of the week and there were few people wandering around so he wasn't surprised when his sharingan eyes located the blonde and pink hair of his old team, chatting amiably and thankfully distracted by a doting Ino rubbing a hand over Sakura's extended belly.

For a moment Sasuke started, a little shocked at the expanse of life that was overtaking Sakura's usually lithe frame. It had been months since he had last seen her, and if he was honest he really hadn't been paying a lot of attention to the updates that Naruto had been giving him about the pregnancy. It was infinitely more interesting for the soon to be father than it was for him, and more than once he had focused on something else in his mind while his friend complained or gushed in equal measures about the soon to be junior.

"... We have to distract them." Hinata whispered softly as they landed on the slanted tiled roof of the store they were standing in front of. She moved like a whisper of cloth over skin, and his red gaze flickered over her with interest again. On a mission she would have been infinitely more useful than his pink haired team mate. Recon had never been Sakura's strong suit, and often he had lamented that out of the three of them on team 7 he was the only one that could be relied on to accomplish a mission in silence and without notice.

Now he was puzzled by his never having noticed the strength of the Byakugan gaze and the skill with which the Hyuuga who wielded it was able to materialize beside him, ghost like as her pale eyes.

"I'll get the kids." He murmured, eyes flickering to Sasu and Hina who were still eyeing the candy shop with interest, hands swinging together at their sides. Below them Ino was saying good bye, giving Sakura's round tummy one last pat of affection.

"It has to be now." Hinata's voice was breathless but calm and her hand shot out, giving his shoulder a push towards the alley on the side of the store. "Go."

Blinking at her mildly he launched himself over the side, watching out of the corner of her eye as she threw her body down behind the Hokage and the med nin, and he listened as her voice called out, a little more frazzled than usual but more or less in control.

"S-sakura-chan! Hi!"

Peering around the corner from the alley Sasuke watched as Naruto and Sakura turned sharply at the sound of Hinata's voice, surprise lighting both their faces, their backs to the kids now looking over at Hinata as well.

From his vantage point Sasuke watched as Sasu's face paled and Hina's eyes widened at the sight of Hinata.

"Uh oh." Sasu said.

Rolling his eyes at himself Sasuke shot forward, just as Hinata forced a smile on her face, looking at the Hokage and his wife with painfully cheery eyes. "Hi, I... how are you?" she twisted her hands behind her back and the couple blinked at her bemusedly. "Uh... good." Sakura laughed a little, cocking her head at her. "Are... are you feeling any better?"

Remembering suddenly that she was supposed to be sick Hinata pressed her lips together hard, thinking fast, watching over Naruto's shoulder as Sasuke snatched up Hina and tried to wrangle a fighting flailing Sasu.

"Right- yes... I'm... I don't know what is going on, I've been so tired and dizzy lately." Hinata spouted, snapping her eyes back to Sakura's face as she watched puzzlement and curiousity wash over their features.

Naruto laughed a little. "You sound like Sakura, she's always dizzy and tired lately."

"It's the pregnancy though." Sakura chidded softly. "Can't be helped. It can't be that for you though, Hinata. Maybe you should make an appointment with Tsunade-sama?"

"Mhm." Hinata agreed, squinting to keep her eyes from widening as Sasuke finally grabbed Sasu by the ankle and flipped him upside down. The little boy had the sense to not scream although his face was red and he was still flailing like a fish out of water, his gaze deadly.

"You do seem a little...dazed." Naruto added softly, following her gaze over his shoulder.

Like a mirage Sasuke and both the kids disappeared with only a hiss of breeze in their wake, and Hinata let out a breath she had not realized she had snatched abruptly.

Sakura frowned a little at her. "Hey... Hinata... maybe, could we go for coffee sometime? I'd love to catch up with you. And Naruto's right, you... you do seem a little out of it."

"Uh... yes. I would... I would love that. I just remembered, I have to... I have to do something, I have to go." She stuttered, giving them a quick half bow as she stepped back. "It was lovely to see you!" she added, turning around and starting a rapid fire walk down the street, hair fluttering behind her in a curtain of black.

"Weird..." Sakura murmured, blinking hard. "I don't even know what to make of that."

"Me neither." Naruto admitted, rubbing his eyes. "I swear I thought I saw Sasuke for a second too. Did you see him? Maybe I'm imagining things."

"I thought you said he went home early." Sakura murmured as they started to walk together again, Naruto's arm hanging loosely around Sakura's shoulder. "Yeah. He did. He's being a weirdo too actually. Something's up. I think he may have found a girl. He brought a home made lunch box today."

"What?" Sakura's voice dripped with disbelief. "Hanabi doesn't cook."

Wincing at what that meant Naruto shuddered the idea off. "Maybe she had a servant get it together for him then."

"Yeah..." Sakura nodded without a lot of conviction. "...that's... that's probably it."

But somewhere in the back of her mind an image of Hinata heavy laden with groceries flashed through her mind. Balking a little she frowned. Naruto paused beside her, blue eyes worried. "...are you okay? What's wrong?"

"N...nothing." Smiling weakly Sakura shrugged, touching her belly lightly. "I...just baby kicking."

"Oh! Let me feel!" Naruto gasped, pressing a hand to her bump with a smile while her green eyes blinked the worry from her face with some effort.

Behind the shadows of a nearby tree Lord Susa watched, cocking his head thoughtfully, shoulder leaning against the rough trunk of his chosen shade. "Well... that was boring." He sighed dramatically, examining his long nails for a moment. "Your turn, I suppose, Sister." And with a flourish of blue like silk in water he disappeared.

* * *

"Let me go you bully!"

Sasuke growled deep in his throat as he walked into the house, tossing the upside down Sasu onto the couch with little regard.

Hina who was clinging to his neck and hip with all four limbs gasped, her eyes threatening to devour her face, mouth turned into a permanent downward grimace.

"You-you-you-!" Sasu tried, scrambling off the sofa and onto the floor. His face was so red Sasuke wondered briefly if perhaps he would tumble over. He had carried him the whole way back upside down to avoid the flailing limbs and as he watched the little boy swayed, his angry face relaxing momentarily as dizziness overwhelmed him.

"Ah!" Hinata's voice sounded behind him and he turned in time to watch her rush forward and catch the child before he flopped, his face paling rapidly.

"You can't do that!" she gasped, and there was more force in that one statement than he had heard her use in any other conversation she had ever had in his presence.

"Why not? He was being a brat." Sasuke grumbled, finally moving to lower Hina only to find her arms and legs were refusing to budge from around his torso. Blinking he turned to look at her and she looked back, wide eyes staring.

Scooping Sasu into her arms Hinata stood to face him, looking incredulous. "He's going to pass out. You made all the blood rush to his head!"

"My head." Sasuke pointed out, waving a hand impatiently. "It's my head. And also, I was a pain as a child." He frowned at Sasu whose eyes were a little wobbly on his face. "I told you both not to go anywhere." As he said this he turned to Hina whose chin was now trembling in close proximity to his face.

"Sasuke." Hinata's tone was impatient and he blinked turning back to her with some surprise.

"I'm sorry!" Hina gasped. "Please...d-don't make me dizzy."

Startled the Uchiha felt his mouth fall open. "I'm... I'm not going to make you dizzy." He began and then his eyes drifted to the still swaying now green face of Sasu in Hinata's arms. Above the little face Hinata's pursed lips and unimpressed gaze lingered on him.

"Right." He closed his eyes. "Right."

"Parenthood is not going to treat you well." Neji's voice echoed and Sasuke flopped on the couch with Hina, feeling her little body scrambling from his side onto his lap, burying into his clothing like a squirrel.

Eyes still closed and a hand over his face Sasuke sighed, leaning his head against the back rest. "...not in the mood." He murmured.

Near the door in a puff of mist Neji materialized, bringing a slow smile to Hinata's face. "Neji-nii."

"Hime." He smiled at the sight of his cousin, smirking then as he took in the sickly Sasu in her arms. "And here I thought I would need to teach your younger counterpart some manners. At least we're in agreement about how irritating you are now." Neji murmured.

Opening one eye Sasuke peered at him from his place on the couch, gaze lingering on the halo above his head.

"So...are you getting a harp soon?"

Frowning now Neji ignored him, and the grin that Hinata bit back sharply as she settled Sasu on the couch beside Sasuke.

"I told you to do something or Susa would get impatient."

"He did this?" Hinata looked up at him tiredly. "They nearly ran into Sakura and Naruto. How would we have explained-?"

"I think that was the intention." Neji shrugged. "It would have... complicated things."

"Complicated things." Sasuke scoffed, picturing Naruto's face at the sight of Sasu. And then, after a moment of silence he pictured Naruto's face at the sight of Sasu hugging Hina so hard the blood on her cheeks threatened to come out of her ears. No. There was so much No that would happen in that situation.

"I'm seeing Ino tomorrow morning." Hinata muttered and the droop of her shoulders made her suddenly seem exhausted as she sat on the edge of the coffee table. "I... I don't understand what they want."

"I don't think they even know." Neji muttered. "But, Lady Ama wants to tell you she has sent something early for you, to compensate for her brother's meddling."

"What?" Hinata blinked at her cousin. "Something early?"

"That's all I was told." Neji smiled at her with sympathy. "I'm sorry."

"...Uchiha-san." Hina whispered, and the sudden feel of her breath on his cheek made Sasuke realize she was still on his lap, watching the interactions between the adults with pensive pale eyes. Curiously he studied her as she looked back at him, tiny pink mouth pinching together for a moment as she mustered up the courage for her next sentence.

"I'm... I'm hungry."

"Oh." Sasuke began a little unnerved by her close proximity and the soft baby scent of her breath on his face.

"I'll get them dinner." Hinata stood then, stretching for a moment before sighing. "Did you eat, Uchiha-san?"

"Don't serve him." Neji grumbled from the corner, wings fluttering behind him irritably. Hinata's eyes lingered on her cousin for a moment, trying not to smile at the grumpy angel. "It's all made up already, Neji-nii-"

Just to annoy the saint Sasuke called. "I haven't eaten, no."

Fuming through his halo Neji shot him a look. Amiably Sasuke peered at him, absently patting on Hina's little back as she relaxed against his shoulder. "...will you shrink eventually?"

"What?" Neji stared at him confusedly. "What are you talking about?"

"For when you sit on people's shoulders." Sasuke continued, face serious.

"Ugh." was all Neji said. "I'll see you soon, Hinata."

"Oh!" Hinata gasped, peeking around the corner from the kitchen. "But-" And he was gone in a poof.

Letting out a little sound that was on the annoyed side of things Hinata sighed, looking over at Sasuke and straightening, surprise on her face. "Oh... she fell asleep."

Turning to look down Sasuke stared. Hina's cheek was pressed to his chest, her eyes closed and breath even with her arms as far around his torso as she could get them, limbs limp. Slowly he continued to rub her back, surprisingly comfortable with her little body heating his.

On the couch beside him Sasu lay still as well, pale skin a little green but eyes closed.

"You know..." Hinata's voice was suddenly right by his shoulder and Sasuke felt his body grow stiff, watching out of his peripheral vision as her forearms leaned on the backrest and then delicately one pale hand reached down to smooth Sasu's dark hair back from his face. "He's just a baby. He's not even five."

"That doesn't matter." Sasuke muttered. "I told him not to leave the house."

"Well, I think it matters." Hinata's voice was soft, feathery as it whispered out of her lips. "He's doing his best. But he's still just a baby." Her eyes finally turned to his face and he was forced to rip his gaze from her fingers moving through Sasu's hair.

Gently she smiled at him, at his stiff expression and black unmoving stare. "Maybe things would have been different for you if people had remembered that you were just a child."

Without waiting for a reply she pushed from the couch and headed back into the kitchen. "I have to go home, my father and sister are expecting me for dinner tonight. But the food is pretty much ready, in case they wake up to eat. I'll let you know how the meeting with Ino goes." The last part was a little weaker coming out of her mouth. "I'll be here in the morning to help with them. I'm not expected anywhere right away."

"Okay." He breathed, eyes still trained on the child snoozing beside him on the couch with familiar dark lashes and a slight frown on his lips.

"Good night, Uchiha-san." her call made him glance up in time to see her disappear through the door into the late afternoon light, leaving him with thoughts about different lives he could have led.

* * *

"You've been rather sneaky lately." Hanabi commented. It was rare now to see her in anything but their mother's beautiful kimonos. Once upon a time Hanabi would have been found in nothing less than battle gear, her hair down or pulled back, her eyes fixated on an invisible Anbu mask in the distance as her goal.

But with the end of the war came the end of a lot of lives and a lot of dreams, and like many of her generation she twisted restlessly in the confines of peace. Through the expansive folds of the white kimono Hinata's trained eyes caught the glint of metal at her sister's wrist and she took note of the kunai hidden there.

Some things never changed.

Sipping lightly from her cup of green tea the elder Hyuuga did not reply, as she had not been asked a question. Quietly she picked at a piece of pink pickled ginger with her beautifully lacquered chopsticks, careful to keep the long sleeves of her pale gray yukata from her food.

"It does seem you have been... out a lot the last few days." Hiashi added lightly before taking a bite. Around them two servants waited patiently with warm tea, their eyes down turned and nearly invisible in their stillness. Hinata marveled that these people who were hardly noticed could have one of the essential most difficult to learn of shinobi skills. The ability to disappear in plain sight.

"I have been training. I was at the hospital today and after I went for a walk." Hinata ventured. Lying was becoming one of her stronger skills lately, she listened to the cadence of her voice and wondered at it's calm and collected tones. Soon she wouldn't be able to tell when lies were spouting from her lips. It made her uncomfortable enough that heat rose to her cheeks and swallowing hard she lifted the tea to her face again, aware that Hanabi's eyes were trained on her.

"You've been training a lot lately then." Her sister murmured.

"I believe it was you who suggested I should keep up with my skills." Hinata replied gently, smiling to soften the edge of the blow. Hanabi's jaw worked for a moment, Hinata doubted she was chewing.

"I have some news that is of interest to me and I believe to you, Daughter." Hiashi interrupted before Hanabi could gather enough air in her lungs to snap something back. "I had wanted to discuss it with you before dinner but... you arrived rather late. So." He waved his chopsticks a little as if to push away the problem. "I have received a letter. From the Kazekage."

Hinata didn't look up, poking at her food absently, hardly paying attention. Hanabi however was frowning at her father, face unsure. "From Gaara-sama? What does he want with me?"

"Not you." Hiashi replied very lightly, as though talking about the time the cherry blossoms would bloom. "Your sister."

This made both his daughters pause, Hanabi with tea halfway to her lips and Hinata's chopsticks in the air, eyes snapping to their father as though they had practiced it.

"Me?" Hinata's voice came out much smaller than she had anticipated.

"Well... he has informed me he will be coming earlier than expected for the wedding, he could be arriving in the next few days in fact." Hiashi continued, nodding politely at one of the servants to top up his cup of tea.

"He has also requested that we host him for the duration of his stay."

"Here?" Hanabi's tone was dripping with disbelief. "He wants to stay here? At the Main House?"

"Yes." Hiashi's pale gaze flickered to Hinata then, studying her parted pink lips and wide eyes. Slowly, under his watchful stare she snapped her mouth shut and sat up on her knees, turning to stare at her plate before putting her chopsticks down.

There would be no more eating today.

"That means..." Hanabi began slowly, her eyes also travelling from their father to her sister with open amusement. "Only family stays at the Main House on occasions like weddings."

Only family.

Neji's words lingered in Hinata's head, ringing like bells tickled by the wind. _Lady Ama wants to tell you she has sent something early for you, to compensate for her brother's meddling._

Closing her eyes Hinata sighed. "I... I think I am finished, I think I will take my leave, Otousama."

"Daughter." Hiashi murmured before she could get herself slowly to her feet. "Did you know of this? Has he ever before shown you interest?"

Feeling her hands trembling and her cheeks heating Hinata searched the table desperately for something comforting. The truth was Gaara had watched her intently every time she had appeared at the Sand Village on business for the Hokage or her family, his attention had always been undivided and kind. She had found him to be a gentle person and although others were still a little afraid of him despite all he had done for his village and in the war she couldn't disagree more. In the end she counted him as a friend, and had been happy to hear he would be coming.

But this.

This was unexpected. Had she been too heart broken to notice something vital?

"I'm... I'm afraid I do not have an answer that would satisfy you, Otousan." Hinata whispered softly. "I'm... I'm as surprised as you, although..." she frowned a little. "I am afraid perhaps I should not be. I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Hanabi let out a little laugh. "Marrying the Kazekage is hardly something to apologize for."

"Stop." Hinata's snap came out like a whip from beneath the table, shattering the calm of the dinner with it's sharp fluidity and both Hanabi and Hiashi stared at her. Crimson in the face the elder Hyuuga pushed herself to her feet. "Please... I do not want to jump to conclusions. He may simply not know the protocol. He is a dear friend and... I... I do not want anyone speaking about marriage." she threw her eyes sharply at her sister then and watched as Hanabi clenched her jaw.

"As the heiress your marriage is of importance to me, as it is to the clan." Hanabi retorted softly, so as to keep the tension from escalating. "We may need to discuss it."

"When the time comes I will happily discuss my betrothal with Otousan- and should he not be able to discuss it with me... then I will happily discuss it with you, as you will be head of this Household." Hinata's gaze remained lowered, almost in deference despite the bite in her words.

Hiashi's eyes lingered on his eldest before turning smoothly to Hanabi. "...a virtue of leadership of great importance is to not overstep your boundaries, my daughter. You are heiress. Not head."

It took much to flush embarrassment into Hanabi's face but in that moment Hinata was relieved to find pink lighting her sister's cheeks, making her look young and pretty despite the frown. "Forgive me, Otousama. Sister."

"Forget it, there is nothing to forgive." Hinata muttered, standing. "May I be excused, Otousama. I am afraid I am developing a headache."

"Of course. You have... not been feeling well lately." Hiashi studied her as she moved towards the door, pausing at the threshold to listen to his words. "Shall I be requesting a visit by Tsunade-sama? I would not want you ill during the wedding." And in the air lingered the other reason in the Kazekage's early arrival.

"No... I... I have not been resting well. It is nothing to be concerned about." Forcing a smile Hinata bowed. "Good night, Otousama." And slightly more coolly. "Sister."

Rolling her eyes behind their father's back Hanabi sighed. "Good night."

Wandering down the hall Hinata shivered, blinking hard as she finally reached her bedroom and stepped into it's familiar privacy, relaxing her shoulders at last and putting a hand to her face.

"Gaara-kun...?" she blinked out through her windows at the brightness of the stars in the early spring night sky. What exactly had the Goddess of the Sun done? So far Hinata had been frightened by the concept of being in a game played by gods. Being at the mercy of their whims however had not seemed out of the ordinary, just their blatant disregard for subtlety and rules was.

But now the bright green eyes of a friend flickered through her mind and she wondered if they had had anything to do with his sudden move. Frowning she moved to her bathroom, rubbing the chill from her arms as she walked.

It was one thing to toy with her, to make her heart break and be entertained by it. It was another to bring someone as gentle and dear to her as Gaara into the fray. Feeling something that she knew was the beginnings of anger she stripped roughly and turned the shower on so that the water scalded before stepping into it's burn.

* * *

Telling her father she had not been sleeping well had not been a lie. Tossing and turning and dealing with children in her futon had that affect on her. It also didn't help when she woke to the feel of massive powerful chakra crawling over her skin in the middle of the night.

Byakugan veins jumped to attention on her face as she sat up, her hands tight around a kunai beneath her pillow as she stared through the room at the windows across her bed. The curtains were parted slightly, just enough for her to see the shape of someone on the sill just outside.

After a moment the twisting turns of chakra became familiar and wide eyed she scrambled out of her futon, tightening the sleeping robe around her waist before pulling the window open and peering out into the chilly night.

"Uchiha-san?"

His shape was a mass of darkness against the navy of the sky and bright red eyes glinted at her, in their glare she could see his features, tired and perhaps if she squinted a little sheepish.

"I... am having issues." He commented lightly, and as his words came out so did a sniffle from his arms where Hina sat, shoulders shaking with heaving tears that broke Hinata's heart in an instant.

"What... what's happened?" she whispered, reaching up to take the child in her arms. Sasuke jumped into her room then, making it shrink in size with his presence again while pulling Sasu off his back and onto her bed where the boy flopped tiredly, curling into the covers.

"She woke screaming, and nothing either of us could do has soothed her." He murmured, nodding at the child. Hina's eyes were swollen and red, her breath hitched and though her crying was quiet, almost silent as the tears poured it was obvious she was beyond comforting.

Patting her head softly Hinata peered at her face, searching for clues. "Hina-chan? What's the matter?" Blinking back at her Hina said nothing, fingers shoving the tears from her cheeks although they kept on coming in a relentless fall of sadness.

"Even Sasu?" Hinata blinked at Sasuke then and he shook his head, looking confused and a little weary. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do."

"I told him to come." Neji's voice stated and with his familiar pop he appeared leaning against the window, arms crossed. "The idiot was panicking."

"No." Sasuke snapped over his shoulder. "I thought she was hurt. It was merited."

"Hurt by pillows." Neji nodded. "Of course."

"He's around a lot." Sasuke turned to Hinata then. "I had hoped it was a passing thing."

"I'm attached to the kids." The tone of Neji's voice was smiling even though Sasuke didn't bother looking at him as he spoke. "Anywhere they go..."

"Fantastic." The Uchiha breathed lightly before sitting down on the chaise by the window tiredly.

"How long has she been crying?" the Hyuuga finally inquired, giving her cousin a scolding look that he winked at. "At least an hour." Sasuke sighed and Hinata looked at the girl in her arms again, watching her sniff softly.

"...did you dream... about being alone?" Her eyes lighted on her own young face, recognizing the terror with a tinge of sadness in her chest.

For a moment Hina just looked at her, blinking her swollen eyes and sniffing. From the window the ghost and the Uchiha watched, surprised.

'...yes..." Hina whimpered finally through a thick sob, little arms wrapping tightly around Hinata's neck.

Swallowing hard Hinata rubbed her back, trying not to watch the reaction of the two men staring intently.

"It's okay... you won't be alone. You have Neji-nii... and you have Otousan and Hanabi and so many dear friends."

"But mine Ka-san,..." Hina's sobs broke her words apart like canon balls through paper and despite her best attempts to keep her face turned away she caught Sasuke's expression change from confused to sudden understanding.

Hinata didn't reply to the last sentence, her eyes turned firmly to the ground. She had wondered at the way that Hina spoke about their mother.

If she was right, she would pass away soon, or had very recently.

Sighing softly she moved towards her futon, settling onto the covers with the girl in her arms, sleepily Sasu moved from the foot of the bed where Sasuke had dropped him, crawling over the blankets until like before the three became a tangle of arms and legs.

With Hina's shuddering body pressed to her chest Hinata ran her hands through her hair, trying not to remember the ache of missing her mother. It had been so many years since she had last felt that throb.

Slowly as the stars began to turn in the heavens Hina's breathing slowed and Sasuke stood, moving towards the window to climb out only to freeze at the glare he received from the still visible winged Neji.

"Don't you leave her alone." The Hyuuga snapped, pale eyes sharp in the dim light. "Don't you dare."

Surprised Sasuke paused, hand on the window latch. "...did you know why she was crying?"

Neji's face turned away, but not fast enough to keep the shame from lighting on his features. "I should have, when I was alive. But no... I didn't. And because I didn't know it then, I also didn't know it now."

Brooding over the reply Sasuke kicked off his shoes tiredly, throwing himself haphazard on the chaise he had been occupying. "You were a child." He muttered absently, eyes flickering to the little Sasu wrapped tightly around Hinata's back. "How could you have known?"

"We were all children." Neji replied after a moment, fading even as he spoke. "That didn't stop life from happening to us."

Throwing an arm over his eyes Sasuke sighed, knowing he would be gone if he peered into the shadows again.

It was strange, having two different Hyuugas make such different statements to him in the same 24 hours. And even more strange that both sounded so true.

* * *

"Hinata-sama!"

The sing song voice of the maids was the same as having a thunder cloud boom them awake. With a gasp Hinata shot up, pale eyes wide. In the span of two heart beats Hinata surveyed the incoming disaster, feeling as yet another handful of years was ripped from her lifespan.

On the other side of the room Sasuke Uchiha was sitting up looking disheveled and sleepy and to the right was her bedroom door. Opening.

Behind it a handful of maids were waiting to encounter the biggest scandal in the history of all Hyuugas.

"W-w-wait!" Her cry woke the two kids in the futon with her and moving faster than she had thought she could move she snapped from the bed to the door, slamming it closed before the maid could poke her head in. Gasping Hinata stood there, hands pressing on the wood with shaking fingers. "Uh...I..." she gasped, feeling awful as the maid's disgruntled words passed through the barrier.

Glancing back over her shoulder she saw Sasuke disappear out the window and Sasu dragging Hina into the bathroom.

As the bathroom door closed she hesitantly opened the door in front of her, blazing red and unable to keep her eyes from expressing her panic.

"I'm...I'm... so sorry... I... I was um..." She whispered, watching as the handful of maids stared at her, their gazes matching in confusion and bewilderment.

"Please, come in." She finally managed, wandering back into her room. "I'll um... I'll just be in the bathroom." tugging fiercely on her tangled hair she scampered to the door, ignoring the puzzled looks of the women as they set to work putting her futon away and setting out her breakfast.

Inside the bathroom the kids sat huddled in the bathtub, eyes wide. "Good job..." Hinata whispered, scrambling over them to the window and flinging it open, nearly smacking Sasuke in the face as he stood on the sill, wincing at the garden far far below.

"...we overslept." He commented, turning dark eyes to her. With the wind blasting she nodded, pushing her wild black hair back without much success. "Yes, I'm sorry I..." and then her eyes landed on his bare feet on the window sill.

"...where...are your shoes?"

Slowly Sasuke looked down and then back up at her, face carefully placid.

Mouthing like a fish Hinata scrambled back over the bathtub and the kids hiding in it, heart pounding in her chest as she ripped over the bathroom door in time to see the maids glance over at her, their faces pleasant.

"Have a good day, Hinata-sama." One called as they moved off, and watching them Hinata waved mildly, wincing at the smiles they exchanged before they closed the door.

"No... no no..." she whispered, walking into her room and tracing the floor by the chair Sasuke had used as a bed.

Sure enough.

There they were.

She had never hated shoes before but, she did right then, sitting innocently and neatly pushed against the wall. Definitely not how a man would have dropped them but a maid would have pushed them aside before sweeping, tucking the laces into them for good measure.

Behind her the chakra she was becoming steadily more familiar with pulsed and his sigh made her push a hand into her hair.

"They're going to think I have a secret..." She couldn't finish the sentence, the word _lover_ would not pass through her lips, in fact it hung on to her vocal chords like a cat avoiding the bath. Eyes closed she sighed. "They're going to think he...was here all night..."

He watched with interest as heat exploded on her neck, brightening it to a red sheen, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Sorry." Somehow that didn't make the fact that he was amused go away and a little guiltily he cleared his throat.

Groaning softly she sat, burying her face into her hands. "Maybe disappearing isn't so bad."

Sasuke watched as she turned her head to peer at him through the tangle of her black hair, and found that he had the sudden urge to push it from her face, unwinding the twists in the black silk with his fingers.

Purposefully he pushed his hands into his pockets. "You sure?"

"No." the smile she offered was weak but brave. "I guess... I better get a boyfriend."

"What?" Sasu's voice from the bathroom doorway was unimpressed in it's tiny high pitched snap. "You... you can't get a boyfriend."

The two adults looked at him questioningly for a moment, Hinata's face still pink. "He's your boyfriend." Sasu continued firmly, pointing at Sasuke who worked hard to keep his face from shifting. "Because... I'm... because..." the child paused, as though trying to sort out math in his head, looking back at Hina who was peering at him curiously, waiting.

The only person who had moved was Hinata who grabbed a pillow and stuffed her face into it.

"It's too early... please... please... take them." she gasped through the folds of the cushion and smirking without the worry of her eyes on him Sasuke nodded at the kids. "Let's go. You need to get breakfast."

"But, I was talking!" Sasu gasped as Sasuke threw him on his back. "I was... Hina and I-" he tried again even as Sasuke grabbed the little girl and climbed back onto the window ledge.

"See you in a bit." He called over his shoulder.

Hinata waved, face still buried in the pillow.

Just another morning at the Hyuuga Main House.

* * *

 ** _so my writers block is kicking my butt. I am sorry. I don't like this chapter... but... ya know... it'll get there._**

 ** _Whatever._**

 ** _i need to read, to get back to snuff. So if you have a thing you liked that you read recently. Fanfic is okay but also a book, let me know and I'll give it a gander._**

 ** _I say yuck, to this chapter._**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

 ** _Also- thank you so much for your reviews which, honestly encouraged me to post today. I also have a chapter finished for Oenomel, but there's five different versions of the same thing... and i can't pick which one is the right one. When I do, I will post. Probably today. (march 2nd)  
You guys are amazing. Thank you. _**


	7. Chapter 7

_**A.N**_

 _ **Hello darlings. I am having a hard time writing. The writers block is still hanging out. So I'm sorry, I am really uncertain about my writing while on a block. The words don't pour they come out in annoying bundles and I have to unravel them to see if there's anything interesting inside. In the end I end up writing thousands of words per chapter and mining it for the parts that are passable. Hence it taking much longer. When I'm not in block. I write a chapter in about an hour, edit in an hour and post. Easy peasy. Not so with the current method :( I'm sorry.**_

 _ **To all my other reviewers: you guys, thank you so much. I mean that. I've noticed I get like several hundred views per chapter I write and about ten people review each time, which means you guys are bothering to do what another 90 people don't. and i don't expect 100 reviews per chapter (that'd be a little scary, I think) but it's so nice to hear others are enjoying what i do. really. otherwise i'm hanging out with my imaginary friends on my own and that's two cha-chas from the mental health unit at my hospital lol. at least with you guys it's a party. haha.**_

* * *

The face that Ino had made should have been a clue that perhaps what she was asking her to do was the wrong way to go about outwitting a pair of argumentative sibling gods. But the alternative was aggressively pursuing thoughts of Gaara and so rather disheartened Hinata had rushed to Ino's house the morning of the "secret lover" incident and requested for the first and (hopefully) only time in her life to be set up.

Ino's face had changed as though on slow motion. Her eyes, blue and dazzling like pieces of brilliant sea ice had glimmered brightly at her words, her mouth had opened into a beautiful pink lipped circle and with her jaw slack she had slowly sat back in her chair at the cafe they had walked to that morning.

"What?"

"I... I am finding... well.." Hinata tried, frowning a little at the table in front of her and the cup of tea she was holding in her pale hands. She had prepared a reason, had the conversation all planned out and yet her memory was slipping and sliding around in her hand like a freshly caught fish determined to live.

She could organize complicated missions, accomplish recon objectives alone with hundreds of memorized details and yet she couldn't remember a conversation she had planned out a few hours prior? Irritated she arranged her dark hair on her shoulders carefully and reached back to her tea, feeling it's warmth like a tether to earth.

"Um. I feel like I'm getting a little old to be single." Despite the practiced way she had intended to deliver the line, with a bit of moping and despair she still felt it leave her tongue sandpaper dry. Wrinkling her nose she took a sip of tea.

Perhaps she should have said something that wasn't quite as close to home as that.

Across from her Ino seemed to reject her words physically, arms pulling back and her face twisting like someone had put something disgusting on the table between them. "What is wrong with you? Don't you dare say that. You're young and beautiful and you are no longer allowed to use the word old around me. We're the same age, for heaven's sake!" She gasped, face screwed up as though smelling something unpleasant.

In front of her Hinata stared for a moment and then smiled. "But you're engaged to Sai, Ino-chan. I'm-"

"Who cares." Ino waved a hand. "Old is old, single or not. But forget Sai. You want me to set you up?" she cocked her head then, and although she was trying to restrain the sheer giddiness it was leaking through the two blue spheres on her face. "Oh, man do I have plans for you."

Clearing her throat nervously Hinata shifted in her chair again, adjusting the simple gray kimono she had chosen to wear that day. Being with Ino always made her feel a little bit mundane in comparison. In fact, that was a feeling that seemed to happen whenever she was around any of her companions from the Academy days. Their beauty only seemed to improve over time, and although she couldn't see much difference in herself over the last five years Hinata was noting things that weren't changing that perhaps should be.

Such as rings on fingers and round protruding baby bellies.

Blinking her lashes rapidly to expel these thoughts from her head she sighed. "So, would you be able to do that for me? I... do hope it's not too much trouble."

"Nope. I already have a guy in mind. He's a little..." Ino began and then stopped at the look that crossed Hinata's face. Anything that began with "He's a little..." just didn't exactly keep her stomach from twisting into pretzels inside her body.

"Okay, you're friends with a half dog man and a bug infestation. I think I can have a little leeway with the guy I set you up with!" Raising an eyebrow Ino gave her a look and Hinata took a deep breath.

If her father found out about this he would be baffled, disappointed, perturbed, perhaps he would even make it to angry, something that didn't happen anywhere near as often now at his age.

"Okay. But... Ino, this needs to be pretty quiet, I don't... I don't know how the family would..." she hesitated then looking around and realizing perhaps they had been speaking too loudly.

The cafe was busy for a late morning but not over crowded and the couple tables occupied were largely focused on their own conversations.

"Oh don't you worry. I'll make sure it stays on the down low." Ino shifted in her seat, grabbing her coffee cup with new enthusiasm. "I'm looking forward to this all right." She smiled, and before she took a sip of coffee she scrunched her nose cutely at Hinata who was feeling less and less enthusiastic about the idea.

"I thought spirits were usually invisible. And also silent." Sasuke said as he let out a breath that was doing little to alleviate his irritation.

To be fair, the irritation was due partly to the winged and haloed Neji standing with arms crossed behind him supervising with narrowed eyes as he handled Hina who was standing on the table, with eyes overwhelmed by tears. The other part of the irritation was Hina, sobbing quietly into her hands in front of him.

In her hair were a half dozen angry burrs that she had managed to locate with her head while doing summersaults with Sasu in the courtyard. The prickly biting things were not just tangled but had moved in permanently and getting them untangled was costing him feeling in his fingers as well as the loss of several years of his life as he tried to remain calm with a quietly sobbing toddler relying on him for relief.

He hated to admit it but Neji was right. Parenthood was going to give him a solid K.O to the face and there was nothing he could say to deny it now. Although he would never admit it to the smug bastard standing beside him.

"You better not be making it worse."

"Let the people who have physical bodies work." Sasuke snapped, frowning at one particularly prickly ball of thorns that seemed to have tangled itself intricately into Hina's bangs.

Her face was red from crying and her cheeks tear streaked, one hand pressed to her mouth to keep her sobs to a low volume, which he did appreciate but at the same time wondered about. How many kids knew to keep their crying quiet? Was that normal? He certainly didn't think so.

Beside her Sasu was worriedly watching, hand tight on her little pant leg. "I'm sorry." He said for the third time in the last five minutes and Sasuke sighed again. "Sasu. It wasn't your fault, these things happen."

"But Hina is hurt."

"If anything it's my fault, maybe I should keep the courtyard in better shape." Sasuke muttered under his breath, not really sure if he meant it or if he just wanted Sasu to stop looking so incredibly guilty. It was making him feel worse, like maybe he should be feeling guilty too.

"Ow... owie... " Hina shut her eyes tight against the feel of Sasuke pulling a chunk of her bangs free of the prickles and, gripping the offending piece of nature in his hand entirely too tightly for comfort he let out a breath. "There... one down."

"Six to go, there's one behind her ear." Neji commented, peering at Hina closely.

Frowning at him Sasuke waved at Hina who was now wide eyed and looking hopeless. "There's... there's more?" And with a wet breath she burst into tears, burying her face in her hands.

"Your ways with children are astounding." Sasuke hissed while Neji floundered, wanting to put his hands on the small shoulders in front of him but knowing the impossibility of it. "It's okay, it's okay, hime!"

To the utter relief of both the men a knock on the door sounded, soft and polite and entirely familiar.

"Come in!" Sasuke shouted attempting to keep desperation from his voice, turning to look back at Hina's hair while pushing his black sleeves up to his elbows.

Quietly the door opened and Hinata peered into the house, pausing at the sight of her four year old self standing on Sasuke's coffee table, weeping and with things in her hair she couldn't quite make out.

Neji tried to not look guilty as he motioned to the little girl. "Maybe leaving them in his care is not the best option, Hime." He began, and met Sasuke's glare with a fierce one of his own.

"What's happened?" Hinata blinked, walking over cautiously and examining the tangled mess of the little girl's hair before smiling and letting out a tiny worried laugh. "Oh no... these things. Okay." She shook her head and glanced at Sasuke, who like Neji was staring at her in disbelief that she would actually laugh.

Hina however seemed to hear the calm in her voice and slowly her tears lost force and speed, until her gray eyes were watching Hinata pushing her kimono sleeves up her forearms. "I just need you to get some oil from the kitchen please, Uchiha-san. And maybe run a bath for her too to wash her hair afterwards. It's going to be fine, Hina-chan." Hinata smiled at her softly and Hina blinked mildly at her, breathing in deep as her tears disappeared.

"Hn." Sasuke and Neji both grunted, and then glared at each other again before Sasuke moved to the kitchen to get the oil that had been requested.

"How did meeting Ino go?" Neji asked watching Hinata's face remain carefully focused on the tangled mess of knots before her, eyes unwavering.

"Oh... fine." she sighed, ignoring Sasuke's eyes on her as he passed her the oil.

"Does she have any ideas?" The Uchiha's voice sounded odd, emotions layered beneath the usually stoic vibrations made her curiously bite her lip.

"Ino... always has had ideas, I've just never... been interested." Hinata laughed but there wasn't as much mirth in the sound as there should have been and Sasuke stuffed his hands into the back pockets of his pants, studying her a little worriedly.

Before the burrs had come into play Neji had been a bother. He had followed Sasuke around while he warmed food for the children to have for breakfast and nagged him while he tried to soothe Sasu down from his panic at the word "boyfriend" that had left Hinata's lips earlier on. His nagging had had one particular annoying theme.

What had been worse about Neji's insistence was that what he was saying were things that Sasuke himself had been thinking but trying to ignore.

"You can't just leave this whole thing to her. You're already engaged, you should be attempting to fall in love with Hanabi. It would certainly make things easier and end this thing neatly with no reason for Hinata to go about putting herself in harms way. Dating? Hyuuga don't date. I'm appalled you would let her think she had to." Neji had made a face then at him, a face he had seen him make while he was alive when a soldier had weakened under the fright of the incoming war and tried to defect.

Sasuke did not appreciate being looked at that way.

"There!" Just as quickly as she had arrived with oily fingers that coated the locks of hair in their slippery smoothness Hinata removed one and then two of the burrs, like magic.

Hina looked at the now softening prickles in Hinata's pale hands and sighed with relief. "T-thank you."

"You're welcome." Hinata smiled. "Now hold still, there's a few more but it won't take long to get them out. "

And as she worked Sasuke glanced at Neji who was frowning at him intently, looking more and more see through by the second. "I'll be back later." He commented, and HInata looked up just in time to frown at him as he disappeared. "But... Neji-nii..." she let out a sigh as he disappeared. "He's... always leaving whenever I arrive." she whispered.

Sasuke shook his head. "I don't think that's what it is." Although, he didn't know and her words were true. Still he couldn't imagine that Neji (annoying bastard that he was) would do that. Remembering his specifically irritating points of the day he cleared his throat lightly, changing the subject.

"I was thinking that perhaps I should be spending some more time at the compound." He ventured, watching her carefully as she frowned first at the tangle of black in her hands on Hina's side and then at him past the little girl's head. "I...I'm ...that's good. But... um...Why?"

"...I should... be getting to know Hanabi more. It would simplify things if I..." he let the words die then, wondering why the idea of saying "fall in love" was so sickening to him. It was a natural occurrence, plenty of people were in love and he wasn't opposed to them being that way.

Somehow however he had always figured he would not be one of them. It seemed an uncomfortable way to be, and something that you caught like the measles. He wasn't pleased about the idea of catching either disease. Although their side effects were different neither seemed particularly pleasant. Both took some semblance of control out of his hands.

"I'm sure Hanabi will be pleased to see you more." Hinata nodded, studying him as she removed the last offensive burr from Hina's hair. "Even if it is an arranged marriage, Uchiha-san. It doesn't have to be an unhappy one."

"Right." Sasuke blinked rapidly, unsure of what that meant. Marriage was marriage, he wasn't sure he knew what constituted a happy or unhappy one. He had never had a chance to witness a marriage but for the one his parents led until their death and in that he had not been particularly impressed.

Perhaps he should have been paying better attention to Sakura and Naruto of late?

Then abruptly he looked at her. "You should stop calling me Uchiha. If this thing works out you'll be my..." and as he went to say sister in law he felt the distaste in the sentence, the way his body seemed to repel the idea and he paused, watching as her pale eyes blinked at him calmly, waiting for him to finish.

"Sister-in law?" she supplied finally, looking puzzled for a moment. "I... I suppose. I just didn't want to presume that you would... be okay with..."

He stared at her for a long moment as if trying to figure out what in heaven's name she was talking about and after staring at each other she felt herself smile and then laugh. "Okay... Sasuke."

"...um...Uchiha-san?" Hina's little voice whispered suddenly and they turned to look at her, blinking rapidly.

"You're hungry." He replied, watching as the elder Hinata blushed hard. "I... I... I always had a pretty good appetite." she admitted slowly.

Smirking he picked up the little girl, walking towards the kitchen with her in his arms. "I've noticed, we're running out of food, actually. I was going to go into town, Naruto is going to come back if I don't meet with him at least once this week."

"I can watch them," Hinata followed behind him trying to calm the raging fire in her cheeks. It was overwhelming having a little person outside of her body whose actions she felt responsible for and yet had no control over. "You... you probably need a break."

"I'll be back in a few hours." He replied, avoiding the entire concept of needing a break. Hina's little eyes were focused on him still, tempestuous and lined with wet dark lashes from recent crying. He had noticed that any sign of irritation on his part sent her into quivering shakes and lined her pale eyes with tears she tried hard not to shed. It was a confusing contrast to the elder Hyuuga who, although easily embarrassed had complete control over her features. The only time he could recall seeing her weep had been after the war, standing with her family and comrades honoring the dead.

Settling the smaller version on a chair Sasuke pulled out another for Sasu who shoved it hard until it was pressed right up against Hina's and then promptly climbed onto it. Still unsure of what to make of this particular attachment the elder Uchiha turned away and rummaged in the fridge for something to give the two quiet waiting children now sitting together holding hands.

Studying them from the doorway Hinata let out a sigh, wondering too about the grip they held each other with and how badly Sasu had reacted to the mention of her needing a boyfriend. It wasn't surprising overall to think that a Sasu, whatever the size, would grasp something as complicated as time travel. He was after all Sasuke, and there was little that he was unable to grasp ever.

But that did pose a problem.

"Um..." Hinata began and watched as Sasuke's head turned just a little towards her despite turning the stove on and throwing a pan with items she had cooked for them earlier onto it. "...tonight, I...Ino said I was to meet...someone." She drifted off, eyes trained on Sasu who was whispering something to Hina and making her giggle.

Sasuke nodded without turning around. "Okay."

Hinata sighed deeply then, and he glanced at her, not without empathy. "Have you been going to the shrine still to pray?" There was a tone on his voice when he said it, not mocking so much as...flippant.

Her lavender gaze stilled and something about her jaw tightened so that he paused, interested in her reaction when he had been expecting a laugh.

"No." She murmured, moving towards the sink to wash her oily hands from cleaning the burrs out of Hina's hair. "...I doubt I ever will again."

Thinking of the green eyes and bright red hair of Gaara she watched the water heating against her palms until it was scorching and they blazed red with heat.

"That makes two of us then." Sasuke said suddenly after a long silence and without turning to look at him she smiled.

* * *

"I feel like you've been slacking this week." Naruto eyed him as they walked down the main street of the village. In a blink of an eye the blonde could go from frowning at him to smiling and waving kindly at villagers who recognized him and stopped to say good afternoon.

Sasuke let out a breath, remembering again why he avoided going anywhere that was unusual for him with the blonde Hokage. Eyes were on him most of the time as it were, and then hearing about his engagement to the heiress of the Hyuuga clan he had noticed a doubling of the attention he had so loathed before. Whispers that had died down as the years after the war ticked by were reanimated into being.

And now he was wandering through the village with the most noticeable recognized person in town.

Most eyes were interested in that they glanced at him with mild curiosity and some hesitation that was tempered by the fact that they didn't know him, and that was the best kind of glance.

Others, mainly of younger women and, strangely enough of some older were more...craving. A feeling he was familiar with and had grown numb to.

But then there were a handful that were decidedly hateful, those he had no idea what to do with.

"Yikes." Naruto muttered beside him as they stepped to the door of the dry goods grocer. "That old woman looked ready to rip you up with her baggy old eyes alone. Did you kick her dog or something?"

"I probably killed her son once upon a time." Sasuke muttered darkly his mood spiraling quickly into black storm clouds as he absorbed the gritted teeth and loathing sent his way. Suddenly Naruto's blue eyes were not as amused, his gaze snapping to his friend with a tightening jaw that meant business. "Don't be stupid." He murmured more quietly and followed him into the store.

Inside their noses were assaulted by the smells of dried seaweed and fish, ginger and spices, the complexity of the air almost enough to make their eyes water.

As Sasuke wandered over to the counter he handed a slip of paper with Hinata's neat writing on it listing what she would need for the next batch of cooking she was planning and the attendant nodded, moving off to gather the items.

"You can't say things like that." Naruto continued as the clerk left to the depths of the store, leaving them alone for a moment.

Sasuke didn't look at him, but kept his eyes on a barrel filled to the brim with tiny dried fish, their blank unseeing eyes staring from their tangled piles.

"It might be true." He replied softly, glancing back out to the street where the woman who had glared at him so fiercely had vanished. "Or, even if I didn't. She might have decided I cost her her son, while I was...away." He phrased the last bit delicately, referring to a time in his life that he both did and did not regret. It had been on his mind a lot lately, watching as Sasu ran through his house with nothing to worry him but wanting to return home to his mother and father and older brother. Nothing on his mind but where Hina was and if she was happy.

Naruto's gaze was gentle, although tired and turning away from him he sighed. "If anyone is giving you problems... you need to talk to me about it, Sasuke."

"No one is."

"Well, if there ever is anyone."

"They wouldn't dare." He added gently, his eyes chiding. "They are still afraid of me."

"Well... at least Hanabi isn't." Naruto laughed and Sasuke almost didn't smile but forced himself to at the last moment. "Right."

"Why are we here anyway?" The blonde continued looking around as though he had just realized where they were. "I thought we were going for a drink."

"After. I just have to pick up a few things." Sasuke shrugged and as he did the clerk came out from the back groom, pushing the curtain behind the counter out of the way to set several paper wrapped items on the counter to tally up the cost.

"Uchiha-san, everything is ready. I added some green tea as a thank you for opening up an account with us." The man murmured giving a brief bow and Sasuke paused, blinking at him with his hand on his pocket where he had been about to pull out his wallet. "I do not recall opening an account." he began slowly and the man straightened, looking surprised.

"Oh... I have in my notes that a few days ago Hyuuga Hinata-san opened an account under your name. Could it be that my daughter misunderstood-?"

Caught now with Naruto's blue eyes wide and surprised on him and the gentle grocer's face puzzled Sasuke paused, unable to resolve the issue without flat out lying.

"...No... no that's correct. I forgot." He conceded, wincing at Naruto's suddenly cocked head in question although he didn't say anything and for once Sasuke thanked him mentally for his discretion.

Carefully the Uchiha kept his eyes down away from the blonde's penetrating gaze and as soon as the door closed behind them Naruto said. "Why in the world would Hinata be opening accounts under your name at stores around town?" He ran around to Sasuke's other side as the man started to walk towards the Ichiriki in the hopes of distracting the Hokage with ramen.

"It was just the one, and I asked her to." Sasuke lied then and even as he did it he knew it wasn't going to work based on the look that Naruto gave him.

"Look, I'm going to eat something, are you coming or not?" Sasuke finally threw in and like a puppy on a bone Naruto's expression changed. "Ichiriki is right near here."

"That's fine." his friend complied, as though he had not thought of it and for a moment they were quiet, walking calmly down the street with the items in Sasuke's hands momentarily forgotten. Or so he thought.

"Remember that conversation we had about the obento." Naruto stated suddenly looking both ways before crossing the street to the restaurant where they were headed. Beside him his brooding friend did not reply and he plowed on having not expected an answer.

"Whenever you want to talk to me about it." Naruto continued, and his blue eyes flickered to Sasuke's face for only a moment. "I'm here."

Without a word Sasuke moved to sit down with him at the stools lining the bar of the ramen shop, wondering again if he should be taking him up on his offer.

* * *

This was a nightmare.

She stared at Yamanaka Fu, with her heart in her throat making her feel more like she might throw up. Swallowing hard she clenched her hands tightly on the bag she had brought with her and tried not to let her face slide from a placid calm mask. If she failed her mission she was going to end up sending Yamanaka Fu into the stream that curved through the village's restaurants. She imagined that somehow that would get back to her father. It would be an unpleasant way for him to start off his day, reading the morning paper in the morrow and seeing her name along with Yamanaka Fu's on the front cover.

 **"Hyuuga Princess Has Violent Post War Breakdown."**

 _Deep breaths. Just deep breaths._

"Are you maintaining your physique for the sake of gaining a husband or is your body type just naturally slender. It would be good to know how strong the obesity gene is in your family." Fu commented lightly as he poked without much interest at his salad. He was generally speaking a handsome man, with sharp even features and a delicately full mouth that kept spouting nonsense. As Hinata stared at him she wondered that someone who appeared to be so pleasant could say such disquieting things. And so lightly, with grace and delicacy.

The restaurant that they were at was one that she was sure Ino had suggested and Fu had decided he would listen, for whatever reason. Inside the building there was the gentle touch of a piano echoing and the tables were neatly lined with white tablecloths. From lack of anything to do but come up with an answer to his insulting question Hinata stared at the beautifully lacquered chopsticks sitting ignored by her salad.

 _He doesn't do this on purpose... this is not his fault. He's like Sai... He's been trained to be this way._

But it didn't seem to matter how much she tried to keep herself calm her heart was pounding and her hands were tightening. Of all people, did Ino really think that setting her up with a past Root shoulder would go well?

 _I misjudged her matchmaking abilities._ Hinata let her eyes narrow just the slightest bit, tightening her hands on her lap where she had a very firm grip on her purse full of training gear she had thought she might need in the case... well she wasn't sure, but going into a date didn't seem safe and so she had packed like she was going to a mission.

Except she was wearing a ocean blue dress that cinched at the waist, and flared from her hips, and Ino had brushed her hair until it reflected the light of the candles on the table and her feet were uncomfortably pinched in black heels beneath the table cloth.

So, perhaps the kunai and shuriken in her purse were not exactly the best accessories.

Trying to remember what he had just asked again Hinata felt her face flare with heat, one part embarrassment one part frustration.

"I... train quite often." She replied very slowly, watching him look up then, chewing slowly and carefully before saying. "So perhaps you will gain a lot of weight once you stop training as hard. Like if there's a fetus."

"A fetus?" Her mask was cracking, she could feel the disbelief and horror starting to tinge the curve of her lips, making her eyes widen and then narrow with distaste.

He studied those movements on her features with interest and confusion. "Yes. If you were to be pregnant, you would get fat."

For a moment Hinata allowed herself the pleasure of picturing her cousin, tall elegant and stoic and the expression that would cover his face if he heard what Fu had just said. Unbidden she watched as the Neji in her mind expertly kicked Fu into the stream over the balcony, knocking lanterns askew as his body flew, the cries of people at other tables shocked and flustered.

She smiled then, pushing her chair back.

"I'm so sorry, Yamaka-san. I am not feeling very well at all. I must really be going."

"Oh. But-" Fu began a little bit alarmed now that she was standing and politely putting her napkin on the table. With the same frozen smile on her face she bowed, ignoring his protests before turning around and blushing furiously walked out towards the exit, as fast as her pinching irritating heels would carry her.

She was pretty sure that the Uchiha compound was right near a training site and as she moved she pictured over and over again how her fists would look smashing into... the training posts.

Not Yamanaka Fu's face.

* * *

Sasu and Hina had fallen asleep awhile ago. Their bellies were distended and he noted that the pajamas that Hinata had bought them strained against the roundness of their torsos as they lay on his bed, piled together like puppies, the blankets tangled with their legs, their hair twisting and knotted together so that he couldn't tell whose tresses were whose.

Standing there looking at them Sasuke jumped when Neji whispered. "I don't recall this happening when you two were young. I would remember if she had cared about you the way that this Hina does."

Without turning around and more than a little annoyed at his jerky response to the ghost angel thing that seemed to be haunting him Sasuke shrugged. "I don't think... we were." he admitted slowly. "I think, we could have and never did."

"What?"

"I saw her once." He had not mentioned this to anyone but looking at them, soft cheeks pressed together, Hina's own pink with heat and her perfect doll lips inches from Sasu's a nervousness he didn't understand was making his stomach tighten painfully. "She was sitting on the Hyuuga Compound wall. I... she fell. I caught her. Sort off." He remembered now vaguely heading home holding his side, the ache of breathing only a background throb as he rushed, anxious to talk to his mother.

Anxious to ask about the pale eyes of the Hyuuga.

"That was you?" Neji seemed mildly surprised. In his memory he saw the scratches and the bruise on Hinata's arms from the fall, he had seen Ko Hyuuga reprimanded sharply for not watching his charge well, his father had spoken about a day when perhaps he would need to protect the girl, and Neji had been puzzled. He had not thought of it again. Things... had changed rapidly after that.

"It was before...her mother died." Sasuke whispered, and then added even more softly. "Before mine died as well."

A silence hung between them then, punctuated with the soft breaths of two sleeping children before life happened to them. Their innocence made the air smell sweet, like their breath after sucking on a lollipop.

"I am not permitted to speak about those that have died before me." Neji whispered, feeling the touch of his thoughts despite his silence. "I... honestly don't remember. I have a feeling Lady Ama had something to do with that."

Sasuke made a noise then, almost offended but it had no bite. "It was too long ago." He whispered. "I no longer miss my mother."

Neji didn't say anything as he walked out of the room and down the stairs, the lie was too well articulated for an argument and he wasn't interested in that. What he was interested in was the little girl sleeping soundly on the bed, and the woman out in the night taking a risk with her heart as they spoke.

Disappearing and reappearing downstairs he refrained from smiling at the slight jump of the Uchiha's body when he materialized in front of him at the bottom of the stairs.

"You seem entirely too calm considering Hinata is out on a date right now."

Sasuke pushed through him, making his image distort and re-knit itself together again. "Why would I be anything but calm. She's a shinobi she's fine."

"What if it takes too long? You already have reason to be with Hanabi, you should be pursuing that, not sending her out to..." Neji grasped for a word. There were many he could think of "shame herself, sell herself, humiliate herself." none of them were very nice and so he kept searching until Sasuke finally gave him a look.

"It's a date." He grumbled. "She's fine." And with a snap of his wrist he opened another book he was desperately searching through, looking for the names of the gods among it's ancient script.

"Oh yes." Neji nodded sarcastically. "Because, you've been on so many dates you would know what it's like."

At this Sasuke lowered the book turning his dark eyes to face him with a tightness about his jaw that was less than pleasant. "I don't need to date."

"You can't. You mean."

"What?"

"You had to go with an arranged marriage to continue your clan." Neji pointed out. "Why not date and find a suitable mate. One that was to your liking. Hanabi just seems to be... acceptable to you. Which, I might add is the other way around. Hyuugas are far out of your station. Let alone a daughter from the main house."

Sasuke's eyes remained on him, unmoving. "You are at an advantage, being dead. But I always did like a challenge when incinerating something."

Neji couldn't help the wide open smile that graced his features. "You can't scare me. I'm a ghost. I'm pretty sure that's my department."

Cutting off the scathing remark that was to follow from the Uchiha the door opened and Hinata stumbled in without knocking, slamming the barrier closed with enough force to make Sasuke's eyebrows rise.

For a moment the ghost and the man stared at her and she stood there with a hand over her face, covering her eyes.

In the stillness Sasuke took her in, unable to do anything but let the image of her burn itself to his retinas, forever engraved inside his mind. She was in a dress, something he had never seen before. The eldest Hyuuga was always in kimono, and yukata, giving her an air of grace and elegance that seemed to buffer any understanding of age. It was a short dress, above the knee and the skirt flared from her waist out, accenting the smallness of her body, and also... the curves above it and the curves below.

Her long legs pushed into the ground on high heels that she kicked off without preamble and with a shaky voice from beneath the cover of her hair she whispered. "The date thing... is... is not going to work I don't think."

Beside Sasuke Neji let out a soft breath, and with eyes sharp as the katana he favored the Uchiha watched as the ghost's face moved towards placidity, erasing something on it that Sasuke could name in only one word. Want.

Wordlessly Neji vanished, not a slow fade like the fog on a warming morning but the abrupt snap of a dream forgotten upon waking. One moment he was there, his eyes devouring the woman at the door and then he was gone.

It was a strange thing to see, and even worse to comprehend. Slowly Sasuke turned to Hinata and watched as barefoot she pulled her hair forward on one shoulder and began to plait it, eyes down, having missed Neji's sudden departure.

"No luck." He had meant to ask but it came out factual and as she sat down on the armrest of the couch he felt his eyes disregarding his instructions, following the curve of the small of her back up to the bare skin along her shoulders blades and the pale smooth nape of her neck. For a moment the image of Neji's face before his disappearance flashed in his mind's eye and he turned away abruptly, blinking hard.

"No." She shuddered then and he opened his mouth with more questions, but shut it abruptly when her gray eyes went to him. Cheeks pink he could tell she was embarrassed although a downward turn of her mouth also told him there was the possibility that she was also...

Furious.

Something about his face conveyed his surprise and with a deep breath Hinata finished braiding her long hair and tossing the thick black rope over her back she stood. "Ino decided that Yamanaka Fu was a good choice for a first date, and if you do recall..."

"Oh." Sasuke had not meant to make a sound of any sort but his abhorrence was too strong to contain in his throat. Fu was like Sai, one time a member of Root, robotic and with none of Sai's attempts at civility.

Thankful that he didn't seem to need anymore explanation Hinata rummaged around in the bag she had brought with her on her shoulder, her back to him as she did so.

"I... I...I know I said I would take the kids... but... I..." she paused then, looking up and around. "Where are they?"

"Asleep." This was a conversation Sasuke was more willing to have and still he watched as she pulled out rolls of what appeared to be fabric, holding them in her hands carefully as she removed them from the bag.

"Oh g-good." She whispered the relief there so obvious he wondered if she was aware of it. "I...I really need to..." and chucking the bag on the ground she stopped, pressing a hand to her face hard.

Panic fluttered in his chest then as he watched, panic that she was about to cry and he would have no idea what to say or do. Children crying he had been forced to deal with, women though...

"I really need to hit something." She finally said, and the flatness in her tone was familiar. A sigh of relief he had not realized he was holding escaped him. This, he understood.

"The training grounds are not far." He murmured, and as she unfolded the rolls of fabric in her hands he realized the black and white material was clothing. Battle gear.

Whatever Yamanaka Fu had done, she had suspected it would happen, otherwise why would have gone to a date prepared to need a violent work out after. Curiosity wiggled around like a splinter in his mind and slowly he formed the words.

"...what...did he do?"

Stiffening like he had dumped a bucket of water over her head Hinata wrinkled her nose, still turned away from him.

Yamanaka Fu had a sweet face, but with it's calm unemotional gaze it was unnerving. His voice was flat and uninterested, his touch cold and unfeeling. The only thing that had flavor was his tongue, and the way he used it to rub salt into the wounds it inflicted. The choice phrases he had used with her had included:

 _"You seem well built for child bearing."_

 _"At your age you should be taken, so I am assuming you are flawed somehow."_

 _"Are the Hyuuga eyes always like dead fish or do they look more emotional sometimes."_

Hinata had known, the moment she met him that it was not going to go well. Sai who was tolerable by comparison was sweetened by a desire to know what people felt and why. He was like a first wine tasting, growing sweeter the more you knew of the fruit that made it.

But he was also engaged to Ino, and therefore a certain level of interest and tolerance was given him due to her well being.

There was no such thing with Fu. There was just his flat eyes and painful honesty.

"...I am not his type." She replied slowly and Sasuke made another involuntary noise that had her glancing back at him confusedly. It was an elegant and Uchiha-like sound, half amusement half sarcasm and she just blinked, waiting for an explanation.

Looking back at her with a stern expression Sasuke frowned. "I doubt there's anyone whose type you're not."

And the way he said it, with the intensity of someone who _knows_ made her stare, confused until the heat on her cheeks blanketed her confusion with understanding.

On the other side of the room Sasuke felt himself become rigid as the words highjacked his tongue and leapt from his lips in a suicide mission to destroy him via awkwardness.

Before the silence could hang for even a second longer he stood, tossing the book he had been holding in his hand on the coffee table and moving around the couch.

Hinata jumped at the steady but determined gait with which he approached and unsure of why her heart was pounding took a step back, hugging her training clothes to her chest like protection.

"The children are sleeping. If you need to hit something, lets go." He passed by her then, heading up the stairs to change. "I'll spar with you."

Truth was, he needed to hit something too now. And if they sparred maybe he could avoid standing in front of the mirror and smacking himself in the face like the idiot that he was.

* * *

She was shy, she was quiet, she was polite, and when she stepped onto the training site he did not recognize her.

He had thought, they would go easy, he had figured he would get to know her body as she moved, as her blows came at him, but it was more like her hands and feet and eyes and hair were a whirlwind that aimed to taste his blood and for the first time in years he found himself... excited.

Gasping Sasuke shot his arms up, absorbing a kick to the forearms and shooting his foot back for momentum he pulled his knee up into her torso. With a grunt she absorbed the blow in her palms rotating his limb away from her, face held tight in concentration as he turned and threw his other leg at her head. It slammed into her raised arm sending her stumbling two steps to the right with the force. She gained her feet with a grunt and shot to a crouch that sent the momentum of his kick over her head. Her one small delicate foot, that had so recently been wearing heels and looking innocent snapped towards his, aiming to send him to the floor.

A grunt emitted from between his lips and he felt the impact of her blow to his ankle before he could throw his weight hard to the right, landing on one hand chucking his legs high in a dizzying summersault to avoid the ensuing freight train force of her sweep.

"Tch!" He gasped as he gained his feet and parried, parried again and again as her blows came fast and hard. In his head his sharingan screamed to unleash, but they had agreed no dojutsu and with a snap of his wrist he slammed his fist into her shoulder, sending her back with a sharp gasp only to feel a left hook connect hard into his rib.

She wasn't using Byakugan, the blow had no chakra, but a throb of pain made his eyes widen and seeing his surprise she twisted, turning her back on him with her eyes shooting to follow his limbs, a flash of her pale gaze between the flying folds of her black hair branded itself into his mind and her elbow came around hard, hitting his raised forearm protecting his head.

If she had connected with his temple what a migraine he would have had.

Snapping his wrist he grabbed the offending elbow, dragging her hard and wrecking her balance as he pulled her backwards. A lesser shinobi would have opened themselves to a blow to the spine by his knee raising up to connect with her stumbling back, but she was flexible and even beneath the black shirt he could see the muscle of her torso straining as she used the momentum he pulled with to kick her legs up revolving over his arm and landing a few steps away, hands raised in battle stance.

He was gratified to see her chest rising and falling hard, pale eyes narrowed, pink lips parted as the air passed between them.

Until he realized, he was breathing a little harder than he had expected. For whatever reason... he had not thought she would pose a problem. Not even without dojutsu, or the rest of his arsenal of weapons. He had thought it would be interesting just the first time.

He had been wrong. This could be interesting all afresh every time.

"You're surprised." She didn't ask but stated and her smile made him panic at what his face was doing. Trying to regain his composure he let his arms drop, shaking out the sore arms she had used as a punching bag. "It's been a while since the war, since the need for missions. Many of us are rusty."

"Are you?"

He smirked then at her bite and the fact that in battle stance something else seemed to come out of her he had not seen anywhere else. "No."

"Me neither." She straightened, letting her stance drop and then winced. Slowly she rotated the shoulder where his fist had made contact. "...thank you... for taking the time. I must be boring compared to your usual sparring partner."

There it was again, the avoidance of the name. He blinked rapidly at her, adjusting with his hands the training bandages around his arm. They were looking a tad threadbare from the number of times her booted feet had slammed into them and he was glad they were there instead of his skin. Beneath he knew there would be bruises.

"I found nothing boring about getting a rib cracked." he muttered, rubbing his side where her last landed blow still throbbed.

A sound escaped her then as she rotated her shoulder, all amusement and disbelief. "Cracked." she shook her head and he he smirked a little. "I did nothing of the sort."

Stretching up and popping her shoulders with a slight grimace she turned towards the way they had come and her byakugan activated in the darkness, lining her eyes with it's aggressive glower as she looked towards his house.

"Are they okay?"

They had been away from the sleeping toddlers for about an hour. Between them the air smelled of her perfume and sweat and wild wind. He watched as the breeze tangled through her hair and idly she pushed it back with one hand.

"Yes." slowly her fingers ran through the darkness of her locks, and her shoulders slowly lowered. "...Sasuke. What are we going to do? How are we going to fix this?"

With her eyes away he breathed in deep, allowing his face to shift from interest of her to calm controlled worry.

"We still have time. It's not the first time either of us have been given some rather impossible problems to solve." His tone was dark as he said it but his words made her glance at him, head cocked a little as she stared. It was true, he had had his work cut out for him shortly after being Sasu's age, and the jobs had just continued to multiply and complicate as his age grew in number.

And she was no slouch, wars had been fought with her hands stained red and moons had been saved with a ticking clock of pressure.

But none of these were things that had anything to do with the heart beating in her chest. Her eyes were sad, he could see it as they stared at him in the shadows. Brows pulled into mourning she blinked at him slowly, and her small mouth turned down just a bit.

"...I don't think I can't have my heart broken." she whispered. "...I would gladly do it, if I could to save us both but..." she smiled then and it was worse than if she had cried. "...I'm not sure how to break something already in pieces."

He breathed in softly, tasting her on the breeze. What was the perfume she was wearing? Floral? No... something else. Something like herbs. Rosemary... No. He tried to think, but of all the things he had bothered to learn botanicals had not been one of them. It would bug him however, until he learned it's name. Although, he didn't know why and he wasn't about to ask her to save him from his wondering.

"That dobe, hm?" he had meant to say something soothing, perhaps even kind. She deserved kindness. He was a cold thing, marriage, and hearts and brokenness were all items, words that floated and did little in his chest. His marriage for instance was a business transaction, the awkwardness of the physical being the only part that wriggled in his chest with worry. Until he thought about the cold and calculating gaze of his fiance and then he remembered, as long as they both knew why they were in the deal it would all be okay.

But she was not like that.

At his words he had expected her to turn away, to blush or cry or something of the sort. But this was the second time she had admitted softly that her heart was broken still, and her reluctance to say his name was information enough.

Married, with a coming child, and a pining lover. She was a broken heart. Why couldn't the gods count that and leave them alone.

"I'm sorry." she said and he was surprised, not having expected that to be the reaction. "I don't know how much help I will be."

Which left.

Hanabi.

Or rather. It left him.

Feeling the prick of worry in his stomach he let out a breath, not so much a sigh as a determined huff. "Well, praying isn't an option. So I suppose we should start thinking about what we can do." He wasn't sure what he was saying but not replying didn't feel right.

Together they started back towards the road and Hinata seemed subdued. The energy that had been bristling beneath the surface of her skin as they left the house was gone, in it's place a calm quiet had taken over that he recognized. He had seen storms on the ocean and after raging their placid sadness was the same.

"I don't think Hina would survive here. So many things had to happen for me to..." Hinata began and froze, mouth stalling halfway through a word making Sasuke snap his eyes to where she had halted.

Coming towards them, cocking his head decidedly to the right was the Hokage, his blue eyes reflecting the light of the moon, even as his smile flashed his teeth albeit hesitantly.

"...yo... Teme..." his gaze lingered on him, the questions in his eyes more like accusations. "Hinata."

Tension snapped through Hinata's body at her name. Breathing in shakily she shifted, and swallowing hard she set her shoulders back slightly, although her eyes lowered to the ground.

"Naruto-kun. H..hello."

"What're you two doing out here at this time of night?" He sounded cheerful, approachable yet his eyes were sharp. Sasuke stared into his face, willing him to believe the next words coming out of his mouth and knowing he was going to fail.

"We just ran into each other. Hinata was just leaving."

"Right." Naruto nodded then, and his disbelieving gaze shifted to Hinata with some gentleness he had not reserved for his best friend.

Before he could say anything else Hinata bowed, taking her exit cue from Sasuke perhaps with more gusto than she should have. In the darkness it was hard to see if there was pink on her cheeks but Sasuke had a feeling if he had been standing any closer he probably could have felt the heat coming off her body.

"Have... have a good night." She whispered from behind her bangs and before Naruto could ask more she was gone, running out of the training site like a schoolgirl after confessing.

Sasuke watched first her retreating back and then Naruto's puzzled expression until he turned to look at him again.

"So." the Hokage murmured, and any playfulness disappeared like the clouds in the heavens vanishing to reveal the brightness of the stars above. "Want to talk to me yet?"

It wasn't an option, not in that moment. Even if now more than ever Sasuke felt the need to speak, to explain, to reassure his friend that he would never do what he was thinking he was doing. But without Hinata's express permission he couldn't delve into anything. Especially with someone like the Hokage.

"About what?" He replied slowly, and the steel which came into Naruto's face made him clench his jaw.

"...I was going to train, and usually I would have been happy to find you here. But for the first time in a while Sasuke, I'm feeling pretty sick at the sight of you."

Closing his eyes against the words Sasuke sighed. "Naruto-"

"No. I should go. Sparring is never a good idea when we're..." he hesitated then and Sasuke finally opened his eyes again to look at him, to see what hidden word lay behind his silence. The blonde stared back at him, his jaw tight, his brows furrowed. And in his eyes was sadness.

Sasuke knew that look. He had seen it in his own face often enough to recognize it like he could recognize a sharingan.

It was disappointment.

* * *

 _ **Darling Flamer: I read this thing once that said what we say to people to hurt them is often what hurts us. And i got SO sad when I read your flame because holy cow I'm sorry your life is so awful! I mean, fatness being the least of your problems- or virginity for that matter, but also lonely lacking in friends... like... i am so sorry. I'LL be your friend! I volunteer! We can sit around eating cake and chatting about crack ships! YES. LET'S DO IT! I love you!**_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **Inky**_

AN: I wrote and edited this several times this week, and then when I was uploading it to the website it actually had errors every time. I think I must have edited this thing like four times in one day. I just can't anymore. I'm sure there's mistakes and there are things I changed the first few times so the words were smoother, the context better but I couldn't do it anymore. I am so sick of reading these same 8000 words. Please forgive me.

inky


	8. Chapter 8

**_Hello darlings,_**

 ** _I have not been sleeping. I am going on my third day on three and a half hours of sleep. That's 10 and a half hours of sleep for three days._**

 ** _You know. Pretty close to what you're supposed to get in a night._**

 ** _Honestly, it's really important to get good sleep. There's stuff in your brain that your body simply can't process without the rest. I can 'feel' it in my frontal lobe like extra pressure, I kid you not._**

 ** _Anyway, the result is that writing is freaking hard, because words have a way of not flowing when your braincells are wandering around tipsy instead of working. So please, hit me with what needs to be fixed in this thing._**

 ** _Also, we have had some crazy rainstorms the last two nights, last night in particular was thunder and lightening and the whole shabang. I wrote this with it in the background at like 1 in the morning so, I suggest listening to rain sounds while reading. I love it. Maybe I'm weird, just saying :)_**

 ** _Thank you for the reviews. I'm so glad that everyone loves Hina and Sasu because I too love them, although I will admit I'm partial to Sasu more than Hina so far. I think she's gonna grow on me though._**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

* * *

It was the worst storm of the year. Something about it was unnatural, much like the last storm that had wrecked through the village, swamping the streets in a current and leaving everything raw and clean like a pumice stone against dirty knees.

She woke to the thunder, a boom so loud that memories of a past war wrecked through her. She sat up with a near scream in her throat, Byakugan activated and knife drawn, her heart rushing to keep up with the torrents of water that slid down her window pane reminiscent of enemy fingers trying to get in.

In the stillness following her waking she breathed, listening to the air coming in and out of her lungs in ragged pulls. Another streak of light shot through between the inches of parted curtain on the other side of her room and seconds later the following boom of the thunder made her clench her jaw to keep from screaming.

Explosions were a common occurrence in her life. She had faced them head on first with trembling legs as a child in the battle field, aiming to make her family proud. Then with her heart in her throat behind the heels of the blue eyed one who inspired strength inside of her.

At the end of the war there had been nothing, just the silence of spent canons and unused exploding tags that littered her life like deadly black stained petals. She had no one to follow. Her cousin was gone, like a shooting star too bright and beautiful to behold longer than a breath. And then shortly after _he_ was gone from her, the confession unrequited even after the near destruction of the moon. Those same blue eyes that had made her heart beat with determination fixated as always on the green eyed beauty that had been through so much with him.

She had learned to hate the sound of battle then, as it reminded her of him. It reminded her of spreading her arms wide to take a fatal blow, exposing her inner thoughts and feelings with every inch that her stretched limbs encompassed.

That's why missions of silence were her specialty now. In the quiet of a recon mission, gathering intel with her gaze, slicing through throats in the ignored shadows of a crowded place. She didn't have to listen to the knife on knife clash of a fight, the groans that reminded her of her cousin's last breaths or feel the adrenaline pump with terror through her veins.

In the silence she was a shadow, lacking in feeling, with no heart there was no heart break.

Another boom echoed, on top of the tear of lightening through a sky that was neither morning nor night, a twilight of sunken sun within the folds of the rolling sky, like the sea angry and bitter.

"Lord Susa." Her voice let out a soft whisper and despite the trembling of her limbs she pushed herself out of bed. Getting home late in the evening after the sparring session with Sasuke and the consequent meeting with Naruto without his blooming beautiful wife had left a bitter taste in her mouth. She had arrived sweaty and sore, bruised at the shoulder and several other places to find the Hyuuga Main House in silence. A single maid was left to wait for her arrival, her little 12 year old head lolling with sleep.

Feeling guilty Hinata had sent her off to bed after she delivered the message from Hanabi that there were some rather important things she needed to discuss with her early in the morning. The writing had been bold and hard pressed to the soft rice paper, almost ripping it in places where her pen had pushed too fiercely. Hinata had shaken her head as she headed to her room, tossing the paper on her table with a sigh. She could just imagine all the important things that her sister wanted to discuss with her. Wedding plans likely. But whose wedding was the issue.

Eyes squinting in the grayness of what she hoped was mostly morning Hinata moved to the window, staring out into the fierce toss of the wind, watching as the rain pushed first at a right angle and then a left, buffeted by the whistling howl that was drawing the storm clouds together above Konoha.

This was Lord Susa throwing a tantrum, but why she had no idea. Rubbing her face she turned and with determined movements gathered clothing from her closet and began to change to head out into the chaos.

There was no point trying to sleep. With the reckless abandon of the storm the sting of wounds and the screams of the dying would rip through her mind whenever she closed her eyes. The blood that had dripped from Neji's mouth while he whispered his good bye would paint itself like lipstick on the inside of her eyelids.

Dressed in the black she used largely for her more specialized missions, a rarity now in a time of peace she pulled her hair up into a ponytail to keep the wet tendrils from her face and flung the window open to the slap of the wet wind.

As another roar of thunder echoed she launched herself into the storm, ignoring the pounding of her heart and the headache that came with it.

* * *

The storm didn't wake him, he had slept through worse. The sound of people screaming in labs and the mutilation of bodies by wayward confused shinobi bent on eternal life had made it so when he needed rest he rested, regardless of the darkness that sometimes encroached in his mind.

That didn't mean of course that he didn't hear the soft padding of small feet that started a careful frightened climb down the stairs.

Listening with his eyes closed the layers of sound became distinct. First the wailing of the wind that struck the rain like a fight was being raged and then the hissing spit of the water landing on everything, battering the world to cleanliness.

A flash ripped through his dark eyelids and he heard the soft intake of breath, now close to his elbow before it was released tentatively as a boom of thunder echoed.

Feeling the touch of the whispered gasp and the sweet smell of innocence that came with it he opened his dark eyes and stared into the twin gaze of Sasu, brows pulled into a worried slightly terrified pinch at his forehead.

"Big Sasuke." He whispered loudly, and at the snap of another bolt of lightening his hands shot forward to grip his forearm quick, tiny pudgy fingers vice tight, eyes wide.

"H..Hina-chan... Hina-chan is crying." He whispered again, and the shake in his voice was wrangled like a horse being broken in, with force and determination.

Sasuke stared at his little self, watching with interest as he set his jaw hard to keep it from shaking, eyes pinched to keep from wincing.

This was a Sasu he remembered. One who had watched the emotionless lack of fear on his elder brother's face at the hand of merciless trainers and their authoritarian mountain of a father. This was a Sasu determined to become Itachi.

With a soft breath that was not quite a sigh Sasuke sat up, stretching out the pained bits of his body scarred and marred by too many battles to count. The aches in his joints were forgotten in a time of adrenaline but in the stillness within the house while the storm raged outside they whispered at his mortality. He studied Sasu again then, watching as the boy clenched his fists to keep from trembling.

"Is it the storm?" He replied gently, placing one hand on Sasu's dark head. "Is that what frightens you?"

The boy looked back at him without changing his tight expression, everything held together like a well wrapped package that would explode at the slightest break.

Smiling, just a little Sasuke pushed one finger into Sasu's forehead. "It's okay to be scared. You can't be brave unless you're scared. Without fear, you are stupid."

At the touch of his forehead Sasu's eyes widened to saucers in his face, the pinched tightness disappearing as his jaw slackened into a black hole of surprise.

As he took in a breath he frowned, his chin wobbling, dark eyes filling with tears. "It's so loud." he finally relented. "It's so loud, and Hina won't stop crying."

Dragging in a long breath, wondering if he had perhaps completely messed up Sasuke scooped up the child into his arms, standing stiffly, still groggy from the deep tired sleep he had been missing since he had been skipping his regular training.

Calmly, and without preamble he climbed the stairs, listening to the soft whimpers that became clearer with each step coming from his bedroom. In his arms Sasu shoved his little palms into his eyes to stem the tears from falling, his mouth in such a deep frown it was a wonder his jaw didn't break.

"Come." Sasuke muttered, hoping Hinata wouldn't be chewing him out again for making himself cry. "It will be fine."

At his voice a little mousy sound escaped the quivering white covers of his bed and he peered at the cave that had been made beneath them where a pair of glowing white eyes stared forth, their luminescence interesting to him even in the middle of the night.

Would Hinata's eyes glow like that in the dark? Was it something caused by the tears or was it caused by the power of her chakra?

"Hina." His voice was slow as it left his mouth and the glowing moons within the covers blinked at him rapidly.

"Loud b-boom." She whispered and the thunder raged as if one cue, making her withdraw further into the blankets. In his arms Sasu's body tensed like a bowstring until the rain took over with her hissing and Sasuke sighed.

"Can we have flowers?" Sasu's voice was small, if his face had not been pressed nearly into Sasuke's head he would have not heard the request and confused for a moment Sasuke frowned at him, catching Hina's expectant look and her paused whimper. Realizing what he meant suddenly he raised his brows, settling down at the edge of the bed.

The moment he was halfway onto the mattress the two little bodies were suddenly squirreling into him, finding the crevices of his arm pits and neck, wet tear stained cheeks leaving streaks of their fear on his skin.

Once everyone seemed settled, or rather plastered like glue to his body their eyes one black like the voids of the heavens and one white like clouds on a summer day turned to him. With all this expectation aimed at his face Sasuke blinked rapidly, one, two times and then the glow of his sharingan doused them in red.

The relaxing of the small bodies against him was instant, although the trembles passed through their spines and limbs from time to time with their unsteady still teetering breaths. He watched them for a time, until sitting awkwardly on the mattress proved too difficult and eventually he ended up leaning on the headboard.

As the rain continued to pelt he slid, the tiny arms that had gripped so tightly at first slowly relaxing just as he did and as his eyes began to close. Sharingan finally shut down he wondered if he would still get reprimanded in the morning when he woke under the cover of two toddlers instead of the sheets or if maybe this was the kind of thing Hinata would approve of.

At the last moment before sleep took him he had the clarity of mind to wonder, if only briefly, why he cared.

* * *

She had not trained in the rain in some time and was finding to her infinite dislike that she should have.

Her kunai throws were sloppy, her balance was a disaster and even though it was freezing cold and the light had refused to give more than a glance to the earth between the folds of clouds she should have been able to land many of the shots she had taken to the targets in the distance.

But she had not, and it was driving her mad.

Growling, something she only ever did in the presence of her loneliness she threw another, and another kunai at the posts in the distance, satisfied only when the two hit nearly on top of each other on the wet white paint that had been circled there as a point of reference.

Tenten would have at least smiled at that.

The thought of Tenten made her grimace then too, recalling the expression that had overwhelmed her friend when they had buried her cousin, the way that she had stared straight on at a point in the distance while from her brown eyes rivers had flowed.

And now that Neji lingered here, watching over the two young bodies causing mayhem in her life Tenten had no idea, and Hinata could hardly even look at her for fear of breaking down and apologizing.

Although for what she wasn't sure.

Breathing in deeply she stormed forward to the training post, grabbing at the kunai with a furious sort of flail and grunting hard drew them out, blinking the rain from her eyes. Or at least she hoped it was rain.

Glancing up at the heavens it was hard to tell if any time had passed at all. The dim gray light seemed the same, the sun could have been higher in the sky, perhaps but it was too wound in it's fight with the clouds to allow it to pour through. What had the Goddess Ama done to make Lord Susa so angry?

Frowning with worry Hinata began the trek back home. She was going to need to shower, and change before meeting with her sister to discuss all those important things the heir to the Hyuuga had decided were so urgent.

Sighing, suddenly tired by her own anger Hinata sat, right there in the mud of the training field, burying her face in her hands from sheer exhaustion. It wasn't often that she allowed herself to feel quite as aggressively as she had been that morning, but Naruto had a way of opening things that she had been pretty sure she had cauterized closed.

His blue gaze, the question hidden within it and the way it had leveled on Sasuke had been as obvious as if he had spoken. And it should not have mattered. If she had been Ino or Sakura or anyone else perhaps she would have been angry that he would care what she was doing, it was none of his business.

But she wasn't any of them. She was Hinata, and the thought that he would think something awful of her made her insides turn to ashes.

Derailing that thought she froze, sensing like the breath of a watching ghost on her neck the feel of chakra close by. Byakugan activating with a flutter of her lashes she looked up, freezing at the figure looking at her with only the downpour to stand between them.

The rivulets of water dripped along his pale face, until they took a dive from his chin into the abyss of the stormy world. Green eyes searched hers intently, and the full lips that only ever seemed to whisper in her presence parted with surprise.

"Hinata-sama." Gaara's voice harmonized with the thunder as it roared. This storm was a bitter jilted lover with aims to destroy. It groaned and bellowed and seemed to have no hope to let go. Hinata's byakugan died along her gaze, and she stared instead, eyes wide.

"Gaara-kun?"

It was just the shock surely, that was making her heart beat so hard.

* * *

The storm finally seemed to die late in the morning, allowing some of the sun to seep through, although the rain continued uninhibited, falling with abandon even as the lightening and thunder drifted with the darker clouds towards the mountains in the distance.

Blinking slowly awake Sasuke tried to move his arms and had two seconds of panic as he realized they had both gone completely numb under the pressure of Sasu and Hina's heads. Snoring softly the kids had sprawled in their slumber so that one of Hina's chubby legs was over Sasuke's chest, her head and part of her torso pinning his right arm to the bed, her breath hot and sweet against his ear.

On the other side Sasu had twisted until his butt was tucked right up against Sasuke's hip, curling into his side and armpit gripping his forearm against his chest as though to make sure he wasn't going anywhere.

Wincing at the pins and needles Sasuke glanced at the round window above the bed, trying to figure out the time of day and getting no answer. Everything outside looked gray.

A sigh sounded, neither his or the kids and with an eye roll he scanned the room, finding Neji leaning against the wall at the foot of the bed, arms crossed.

"You look comfortable." He commented lightly.

Sasuke allowed himself a tired glare, before wincing again at the feel of his fingers trying to twitch awake beneath Hina and Sasu's heavy heads.

"Aren't angels supposed to be...well, angelic?" He whispered, biting his lip to keep from groaning as he untangled himself first from Hina who flopped onto the mattress with a sigh, and then Sasu, who made a noise like an irritated dog before curling into himself further.

"The wings are just for show." Neji muttered darkly. "Damn that Susa."

"What's with him?" Sasuke looked over at the spirit while dragging himself off the bed and throwing the blanket to cover the still snoring toddlers. "I ended up here because of his tantrum."

"Lady Ama intervened to even the odds, since he decided to meddle with the children." The Hyuuga muttered with distaste. "He doesn't like being outwitted."

"He should be smarter then." Sasuke's tone conveyed all his dislike and stretching out his now throbbing arms he moved to the door. "What time is it?"

"A little after ten in the morning, I think." Neji murmured, following close behind after glancing once more at the sleeping toddlers.

"Ten?" Sasuke started, his surprise not unmerited. He couldn't remember a time in his life since before deserting Konoha when sleeping in until ten had happened without it being due to battle wounds.

"Yes, I would comment on your laziness but I figure it wouldn't help any." Neji continued, and Sasuke allowed himself a simmer of irritation without saying anything. Turning lights on left and right he plowed on into the kitchen, rummaging around in the fridge for things to feed what he now knew were going to be two cranky children. Hina alone would wake with an appetite to rival his on a bad chakra day.

"You and Hinata seem to be taking this whole thing rather calmly." Neji added again, watching as the unlikely maternal Uchiha threw things on the counter with increasing force. "Considering you essentially die if this doesn't work out."

"Maybe dying isn't such a bad thing. It seems to be working out for you." Sasuke retorted, turning the stove on and wondering again if fire would have any effect on the annoying presence at his back. He had not tried Katon in too long.

"I wouldn't say that." Neji's tone had gained some weight and turning to look at him Sasuke assessed the tightness of his jaw and the aversion of his pale eyes.

Remembering again the desire that had flashed over his features at the sight of Hinata the night before the Uchiha mercifully turned away, dumping miso into a pot from the container Hinata had labelled carefully.

"There's worse things than letting Hina and Sasu stay together." Sasuke muttered.

From his place at the doorway Neji watched the tightness on the shoulders of the man he was trying hard not to loathe. Allowing himself a half smirk he sighed. "Without you two as protectors, you really think they would stay together?"

Biting the inside of his cheek Sasuke kept his eyes on what he was doing. He could blame his ridiculous statement on having a brain groggy with sleep, but even he knew he would hardly choke out a reassurance to the question he had just been asked let alone make it sound true.

Disappearing and restarting here would cause infinite problems, having Sasu miss the desecration of his clan might save them but his disappearance would affect Itachi, would change the course of Konoha. Nothing would look as it did now. And a future unknown was a future full of danger.

They would not be safe, he didn't have to be a genius to see it.

"I know." He acknowledged, replying not to Neji's question but to all the things it implied. Neji nodded, understanding.

Before he could change his mind he grabbed a notepad and a pen, scribbling out a note on it and folding it quickly. With the eyes of the spirit on him he wrote on the top in careful script.

 _ **Hanabi.**_

When the Hyuuga workers appeared at the compound to work for the day, he would ask one to deliver the message.

And as he stared at it for a moment, contemplating the innocence of the paper on the table he wondered if he had just sealed his fate withing the fibers and ink.

* * *

She had not seen him in some time, more than half a year since he had welcomed her with a careful smile and green eyes curious in the heat of the Suna sands. His stance had been stiff, his eyes focused, and she had noted only briefly that his pale cheeks, even more so than her own gained heat when she smiled at him and bowed deeply.

She had thought that it was because his brother, with a wicked smile on his face elbowed him about something, and his sister, standing at her side as the escort for the Konoha envoy had raised her eyebrows in amusement. Having never had a relationship with Hanabi were conversations were easy she was at a loss. The form of communication that she had witnessed had been wholly foreign, it was statements in a flick of eyelashes, a curve of a brow, a tilt of the lips.

It had never occurred to her to wonder what that meant, like being around foreigners who chatted quickly around her in their tongues she had figured it was a private conversation that, if she needed to be privy to it she would be invited into it.

In a way, now she supposed she had been, when he had sent the letter to her father and arrived early.

Closing her eyes slowly, feeling the weight of the rain on her lashes she breathed in the wet oxygen in the air, letting it settle in her lungs.

"Gaara-kun."

He was crouching in front of her in seconds, and she watched as his hair usually so wild glistened with the moisture of the water coming from above. He looked cold, the dripping liquid coming down the sides of his face in rivulets and she remembered once seeing cracks within his face when he had been so young and his eyes had had a darkness that had made her wince, not with fear but pain for him.

"Are you hurt? What are you doing out here alone?" His hand reached out and to her surprise hesitated at her shoulder, as though he wasn't sure if he was allowed to touch her. Hinata let her eyes travel over his face for a moment longer as he studied her in turn, green gaze roving over her body searching for wounds.

When they snapped back to her pale Hyuuga eyes she sat up a bit stiffly, accidentally leaning into his still hovering hand, and the touch made him start, as it did her.

"I... I'm okay. Perhaps I over did it." Lies, now so easy it was child's play.

"You're going to get sick." His grip on her shoulder so light and startled at first tightened and slid down to her elbow, moving to help her up. "Why are you out here?"

It was so strange, to be caught where she had thought no one would be, with her tears still salting the rain falling down her cheeks. "I... was training." she admitted and allowed him to help her to her feet although something in the back of her mind warned against this indulgence.

"Training?" And the way he said it made her think that he approved, but was not surprised. His gaze leveled on her face and although it had been some time since she had felt herself unable to look back at someone, at least at first she flushed and looked away.

"When.. when did you arrive?" His grip on her elbow suddenly made her aware of of just how soaked she was, and how they were almost shouting against the pounding of the rain. Around her muddy puddles turned to lakes, the tap tap tap of the rain in the murky water made a splash and so it looked like everything around her was boiling. Or perhaps it was just how hot she suddenly felt that made her think that, even as her lips trembled with cold.

"Let us discuss that when you are dry." His face searched for hers despite trying to use her bangs as a shield against his unwavering gaze. "You're trembling."

Trembling. Had she ever heard Gaara, Kazekage of Suna use this word? There had never been occasion for it. Political talk had been the bulk of their interactions. In some situations he had guided her hands through the prickly maze of the Suna green houses, his words flowing more freely there than anywhere else when in her presence.

But _trembling_ was a word that made her think of _vulnerable._

"It's just a slight chill." Her voice gained some traction where it had been slipping before, the stutter hand in hand with her shock at seeing him suddenly where she had not expected him at all.

He nodded, just once and his eyes slid from her gaze to her lips. It was a half second, if she had blinked she would have missed it. But it happened, and to her panic she found herself licking the rain and tears from her mouth before they took a dive at the edges of her skin.

Turning away sharply he nodded in the direction of the compound. "I trust you will be able to maneuver us around any lightening strikes? I did not fully comprehend what I was stepping into when I left the comforts of your family's home. I must admit this is new territory."

It was a joke, said in his stern no nonsense tenor tones and despite herself she smiled. "I would have thought you would hate the rain." She admitted, moving to head back to the compound where hopefully some of her questions would be answered. Gaara didn't so much smile as look around, as if trying to see each droplet while it fell. She wondered if like the Uchiha gaze that moved almost ahead of time he was gifted enough to see some of what he searched for. The miracle of nature quenching earth's thirst.

"I do not have experience with this sort of storm. I found it intriguing."

Hinata's gaze drew his again and he nodded towards the vague direction of her home. "Shall we?"

Nodding herself she shot into the darkness, trying to calm the twisting nerves that were dancing in her gut.

* * *

It wasn't long before she was feeling somewhat sleepy again within the comforts of the Hyuuga Compound, a breakfast spread had been put on the table and sitting across from her was her father, brow furrowed as he studied some mail that had been placed beside his morning tea discreetly by a server. On his right was Hanabi, her gaze flicking back and forth between Gaara and Hinata who both still bore their hair wet from their baths, even as the rain pounded just outside of the room. The panels had been removed to let the noise of the storm outside pour into their dining area and Hinata watched it drench the gardens, unrelenting in it's fall.

"I hope you are being well treated." Hiashi murmured after a spell and as he put his letter down the other three dared to take their chopsticks in hand to start on breakfast. "Are the servants being attentive?"

"Extremely so, Hyuuga-sama." Gaara's reply was soft, and Hinata remembered vaguely how much more vibrant he could sound in the presence of a particular blonde she now tried to avoid if at all possible. Hanabi's smile held a kind of impishness that only seemed to come out when she was sniffing around for ways to tease her sister. It made her look younger than she was, and prettier in a way that was almost cruel. But, knowing her sister Hinata sighed. There was nothing outright cruel about Hanabi. She was a fire in a dry tundra, everything had the possibility of being caught in her passionate embrace, to the point of burning away.

"I am so sorry that I couldn't inform you of your- er... _our_ guest's early arrival yesterday, Sister." The mistake was so smooth it had the air of practice and Hinata's back became rigid beneath the warmth of her kimono. Eyes on her tea she watched her reflexion gaze serenely back and commended herself a little bitterly for her ability to remain placid despite her irritation.

"Now that you mention it, where were you, Daughter?" Hiashi said lightly.

Looking up slowly Hinata brought the tea to her lips and only after placing it on the table with her pinky as a cushion to keep the lacquered ceramic from clinking on the smooth surface she murmured. "I have been training rather hard, Otou-san. I find it brings me calm."

"Is that where you two were this morning? Despite the downpour?" Hanabi continued, cocking her head prettily and smiling fondly at Gaara who, like the smart man he was, kept his green gaze down at his food although he had not taken a bite yet.

"Yes." Hinata's reply was soft, like Gaara's voice and for a moment she thought about what their children would sound like.

Instant, like being thrown into a vat of boiling water her skin reddened like a pomegranate ripening.

Hiashi and Hanabi watching from across the table had their faces twist in different directions at her sudden burning. Her father's turned first surprised, confused and then worried until he slammed the door on his emotions and like Hinata abruptly looked extremely methodical, almost meditative.

Hanabi however raised both eyebrows, noting the correlation between her sister's cheeks and Gaara's hair.

"Oh."She said, and that one sound made Gaara look up, assessing in a matter seconds the possibilities of what Hanabi thought they had been doing, out in the rain alone so early in the morning.

"We do not experience these storms in Suna." He began, to Hinata's great relief. Her shoulders betrayed a soft sigh and the barest flick of his green eyes to her urged him to continue. "I was interested to feel it, and to hear it. I was very surprised to find Hinata-sama in the training field. I do not know that I have heard of anyone considering a storm like this good time for a training session but it appears she is more devoted to her art than most shinobi as a result. I find it commendable."

Hiashi studied the young man briefly, stoic face cracking with the smallest turn of his lips. "As do I, Kazekage-sama."

Whatever comfort Hinata had gained from Gaara clarifying their rendezvous vanished and the heat came back to blanket her in the colors that marked the quiet man.

Hanabi's grin was borderline savage as she turned her gaze to her sister. "Very commendable. I must say. Next time, Sister, perhaps you can take me with you. A spar in this wet chaos would be most interesting."

To her own surprise Hinata bit out, softly but with some weight. "A spar _would_ be interesting, Sister." Although she failed to agree that the rain was the cause of her interest. The subtle hardly visible flick of her father's eyebrow made Hinata look down at her food and to keep herself from saying anything else she stuffed a mouthful of rice in her face and chewed very slowly.

Smiling with a lot of teeth Hanabi sipped her tea.

"Is there an itinerary for your day today, Kazekage?" Hiashi cut in quickly. He didn't have to know his daughters well to see where this was going. It needed to not end up there. Hinata's circulatory system likely could not handle such a thing.

"I have a few meetings with your Hokage, and then I have arranged with him to have a casual lunch. He is delighted with the soon arrival of his first born and I don't believe he feels his letters do his stories of preparing for fatherhood justice. I hope this is acceptable." Gaara's tone lightened mildly at the mention of Naruto, his interest in what the blonde had to say obviously genuine.

"Of course." Hanabi answered before her father could take a breath. "Please, would you send him my congratulations as well? I have not seen either of them in quite some time. Sakura and Naruto were once regular visitors but ...but then... um...adulthood changes many things..." she drifted off and to her credit had the good sense to shy away from the topic with honest regret as she realized what she had just said.

Hinata shoved more rice in her mouth, wondering if it tasted bitter or if she was just incapable of tasting sweetness at the mention of the Hokage and his beautiful wife.

"I will let them know." Gaara nodded, then rather hesitantly his green gaze drifted to Hinata, not quite turning to look at her but rather out of his periphery he murmured. "Would you perhaps be free to join us, Hinata-sama?"

She must have been feeling rather bad for her mistake because Hanabi suddenly cut in "Oh, I'm sorry Gaara-sama. I am going to have to steal her from you at least for this afternoon. Wedding planning takes so much out of me, and Hinata has such a way with it. I am afraid I cannot spare her. Will you be busy for dinner though? Or can we arrange to be together in the evening?"

Hinata stared at her for a moment, mouth slightly agape until her father coughed to clear his throat before sipping at his tea and she turned back to her food. More rice, more shoving. Hanabi's skill at lying appeared to be as well honed as Hinata's recently acquired one. Everyone in Konoha knew that the one thing Hinata had no interest in was weddings.

"I will be here." Gaara nodded.

"Hanabi-sama." A servant bowed, on a redwood lacquered tray a small note in plain paper with neat writing scribbled across the top was offered to her. Puzzled Hanabi took the item without a word, ripping it open while her companions nibbled on their food, perhaps a little more nervously than the average family at breakfast.

Eyes widening a little Hanabi put a hand to her mouth as she studied the note, reading it several times considering how small the paper was. It could not have held more than a handful of lines.

Finally after a long drawn out silence Hinata placed her chopsticks on her plate, blinking rapidly. "Sister?"

"Uh... well, it appears Uchiha-san will be joining us for dinner." Hanabi's voice wavered between complete confusion and something like a smile she couldn't quite get a handle on. Her lips did a strange thing until she bit her bottom one with some force to tame it. Still her eyes remained on the note, studying the writing again.

"Oh?" Hiashi frowned and watched her. "Is everything all right?"

"Yes... yes of course." Hanabi nodded then, folding the paper and tucking it into her kimono carefully. "I... he...he just..." she paused then, as if deciding if she should continue. Hinata watched, surprised to find a tangle of knots in her stomach that destroyed her appetite as they tightened and tightened within her in wariness at the next words.

"He just..wishes to see me. Just... because." Her sister finally said, the last word ringing with a girlish sort of incredulity that was at once endearing and almost unbelievable from the calculated young Hyuuga.

Hinata's pale eyes watched as her sister pressed her one hand to the place in her kimono where her note resided, her face almost confused as she did it. The elder Hyuuga did not have to look into her tea to know her face was a kabuki mask, calm and without emotion as she looked at her young sibling blindsided by the one simple attention from her fiance.

Beside her Hiashi simply raised his brows before lifting his cup to the server who jumped to attention to take it. "Please, if you would be so kind... bring me coffee." He sighed.

Only father's with daughters could possibly understand his feelings in that moment, and he wondered what he had done to the gods to be blessed with two such terrifying treasures.

It was going to be one of those days.

* * *

"Sasu. No." He was getting very tired of hearing his own voice repeating the same things, over and over, like a parrot bent on getting a treat.

Only there were no treats, just his own annoying four year old self glaring with dislike. "Yes." Sasu replied with determination. His small hands pulled the bag out of the cupboard in the kitchen, and Sasuke was thankful again that the paper had been tightly tied closed by Hinata's careful hands.

"I do not know how to make cookies." Sasuke explained, again for the third time. "I do not know. You will have to wait for Hinata to get here, she will likely do whatever it is you want, but until then-"

"Hina wants cookies." Sasu continued as though he had not said anything. "I wanna make some."

Determined, he pushed the flour bag over and with a grunt tried to get the item onto the table where Hina sat looking at him with wide eyes. "...Sasu-kun... Sasu, I... I don't need.."

"I'm doing it." He interrupted, grunting with the effort of heaving the bag up. It barely raised an inch from the floor and sitting at the kitchen table with a very strong cup of coffee in hand Sasuke watched, ignoring the throb at his temple where irritation was festering.

"I see you were always that annoying." Neji commented suddenly from behind him and closing his eyes tiredly Sasuke sighed. "You usually have to knock to enter people's homes." He muttered, sipping the coffee and contemplating putting whiskey in it for the sake of his sanity.

"There's things I'm immune to now. Solid objects, polio, your need for privacy." Neji listed absently. "Alas, I can't be immune to your vexing disposition."

Distracted, Sasuke shot out suddenly, "How about heartbreak?", watching as Sasu managed to get the flour bag onto the chair and climbing on beside it began the heaving attempt to bring it to the table top.

Behind him Neji's image flickered, shifting as though fighting against a cold wind. Face suddenly still he looked at the little girl ignoring him at the table, her shining pale gaze fixed on Sasu's exploit, worry lining her mouth.

"What are you talking about?" His voice betrayed him. He knew, if he had been in the spirit world he would not have been able to lie in the first place, something about home allowed him the attempt but lying was not the way of spirits, it ached as the fib left his jaw and drawing in a breath he placed a hand to his stomach where a shot of agony fizzled. It had not been a full lie, as it was possible he was wrong about what Sasuke was implying, and so it didn't quite feel like being torn in two.

But just barely.

Hearing the shake in his voice Sasuke didn't bother turning around to look at him. He stared at the black of his coffee, it's reflective surface like the shine of Hinata's hair in the brightness of sunlight and swallowing he shrugged. "Nothing, nevermind."

Then as the silence lingered for a moment too long he added. "I hope she is here soon, I can't keep this one from trying to cook." He muttered darkly, motioning to Sasu who with a grunt finally threw the flour onto the table. It landed with a bang as the dishes from breakfast clattered and Hina jumped, letting out a squeak.

Rosy cheeks bright, and eyes shining she raised her arms up. "Sasu you did it!"

Proud as punch he smiled at her reaction.

"Now you need the sugar." Sasuke commented dryly. "And the baking soda. And eggs...I think." He continued. Behind him Neji let out a sigh, eager to forget the brief exchange that was now causing his spirit to fray slightly. "I can't believe I am pitying you, even if he is four years old. You're the worst."

Sasu gave Sasuke a look that stated he agreed and then climbed off his chair to look for the sugar.

Outside the rain had calmed to a steady tapping on the roof and windows and from his place at the table Sasuke could see the workers huddling under the first support beams of the construction site on the corner. They were far enough away that he would sense their chakras approaching if they did but close enough he could see them if he peeked between the blinds quickly.

The request to send a message to Hanabi had been met with the skilled Hyuuga placidity that he was realizing probably came with the genetics. He had seen it in Hinata, Neji, Hiashi and even on occasion Hanabi who seemed to have got all the spitfire of a generation in her blood.

Although, perhaps not. Sasuke rubbed at his rib where a small bruise had formed from the night before.

Perhaps there were different kinds of flame in the Hyuuga household. Sparkling like fireworks, and then distant heat like the sun.

Although, if he was correct where the fireworks could entertain it was the sun that would eventually destroy the earth with it's proximity...

A knock sounded on the door then, loud and hurried and before he could do anything the door flung open and a soaking wet Hinata stepped inside, rubbing the rain water from her lashes and soaked hair as she peered at them from the entrance.

Sasuke stared momentarily and then felt his eyes flicker behind himself where Neji had been standing a minute ago.

The space was empty.

"Big Hinata!" Sasu straightened like he had been electrified by lightening, eyes wide. At the sound of his voice Hinata's face went from closed and wary to a full on grin. "Sasu-kun,"

Sasuke watched as the child version of his arms and legs ran around the kitchen table, not pausing to stop as he approached her, launching his body into her like they belonged. Unconcerned Hinata scooped him up, resting him on her hip as she pushed wet strands of hair from her face. "I am making cookies." Sasu began earnestly hands on her shoulders, voice serious. "But he won't help."

"Oh." Hinata allowed, her gaze flickering to Sasuke who was now crossing his arms in his chair, feeling a slight twitch in his right eye.

"Yes." Sasu nodded at her wide eyed look of disbelief. "He won't."

Deciding he also could play that game Sasuke turned to Hina who was watching with an identical expression as Hinata the exchange at the door. "Hina," His boom of a voice was not loud but it carried the whispers of the thunder and she turned to look at him, making her eyes even bigger. He could see her then for a moment as the owl she could have been in a past life, tiny mouth puckered, eyes big, lashes bigger.

"Did you ask for cookies?"

A slow careful shake of her head followed the question.

"What did you say, Hina?" He waited, watching Hinata and Sasu frowning at this conversation that had so rudely taken over their own.

"I...I...I...I said... I liked them." she admitted.

"Ah." Sasuke turned to look at Sasu, who fixed him with a miniature pout-y mouthed version of the same condescending look he was wearing.

Hinata stared first at Sasuke, then at Sasu, and seeing the similarity bit her lip hard, feeling her cold rain soaked cheeks flame. "Sasuke."

"What?" he asked without removing his gaze from the glaring child in her arms.

"Sasuke." she said it again, this time carrying some emphasis and he lifted his gaze to her, startled to see amusement pinching the corners of her eyes and making her lips twist. "Making cookies is not so bad. We can do that, right?"

"Well, I certainly can't." He moved to stand, grabbing items off the table and moving to the sink. "I don't know how to turn the oven on. I have had no need."

Smiling now Hinata put Sasu down, who seemed satisfied that she was on his side and happily went to sit next to Hina on the same chair, jamming their bodies together.

"I can do it."

"Of course you can, that wasn't the point." He retorted, moving to take more dishes from the table before turning to the sink.

"You." He added, pointing at Sasu who frowned at him. "Remember where the towels are?"

"Bafroom." Hina replied for him, and Sasu seemed nonplussed by this. Holding hands they seemed like one entity.

"Right. Go and get one."

"N-"Sasu began, eyes closed against his order.

"For Hinata." Sasuke cut in, waving at the dripping woman standing by the foyer.

"Oh." Sasu said, sliding off the chair, followed closely by Hina who was smiling contently as they walked out of the kitchen without another word of protest.

As soon as they disappeared he gave Hinata a look that was heavy laden with something along the lines of exasperation. "You have to stop spoiling him."

Hinata twisted her rope of black hair in her hands, keeping her eyes carefully on the strands. "I...I do not spoil, I-"

"He's stubborn-"

"Or decisive?"

"And disrespectful-"

"I think he's rather honest."

"And single minded, I couldn't get him to sto-"

"He has purpose, it's not-"

Turning to her suddenly as she approached the doorway he let out a breath that was two steps from being angry. "Stop."

Blinking at the sudden change of tone in their conversation Hinata paused from wringing out the rain from the edge of her black sweater, eyes frozen on his face.

"It will not serve him to have someone take the things that he needs to change about himself and turn them into something positive. He's here for a month, when he goes back..." He paused then, as a memory of blood sprayed on a wall flickered through his mind and with a stubborn set of his jaw he pushed on. His past was Sasu's future, but he could not change that. "When he goes back those things you are twisting will be the things that set him on..." He stopped again, surprised by the sudden lack of voice in his throat, frowning. "Orochimaru made use of me, of those aspects of me. They are not things to encourage."

Suddenly the switch from _he_ to _me_ made him stop, realizing his tone was razor sharp, and her stillness reminded him of a doe he had once seen while travelling through the forest, stunned into a statue by his sudden appearance.

They stood silent in the kitchen, and the sounds of the kids upstairs giggling in the bathroom opening and closing cupboards and drawers created a strange cacophony to harmonize with the rain. Pressing her rain wet lips together Hinata swallowed.

"Sasuke... I... I am unfortunate enough that I am only now getting to know you well."

Startled by the reply to his statement Sasuke looked up from glaring out the window to her, face wary, body tense.

Features soft and open Hinata tilted her head just a bit to the right, her rain soaked hair unraveled on her shoulder in a ink black twist and the droplets of water on her face coursed down the smooth paleness of her skin as she studied him.

"...but people I believe to be very intelligent and warm and _good_ care.. and have cared about you for as long as I can remember." She frowned a little then. "You...you _are_ decisive and honest. You have always had a purpose." She blinked at him slowly, watching his expression and the way something flickered in his face, something unreadable.

"Those are good things." Her smile was slow and tentative. "You... wouldn't be Sasuke without your decisiveness, your honesty... your _purposefulness._ I cannot possibly discourage that in Sasu. I...I won't."

Then, suddenly sheepish she twisted her arms behind her back, looking down. "Or... or at least...that's what I think.. but, I...I do think the Hokage and...and Sakura-chan would agree with me."

Sasuke opened his mouth, unsure of what exactly he was planning to say, although he realized this was his attempt to not end this conversation in a "Tch," or "Hn," that was trying to claw it's way out of his suddenly anxious and flustered throat.

Without giving him a chance however Hina and Sasu appeared down the hallway, arms full of towels having completely missed the part of Sasuke's instructions to get just one.

"Oh my!" Hinata laughed, turning away from him, neck and cheeks red despite the rain. "Look at you!" And she bent to retrieve the pile of now haphazardly folded laundry before it ended up on the floor.

Chewing on the inside of his cheek Sasuke watched as she balanced the pile and resting it on the back of the couch began to refold the three unnecessary towels the kids had brought.

"Hanabi mentioned at breakfast that you will be joining us for dinner tonight." Hinata's tone was light, steering sharply away from the last conversation.

For a moment Sasuke hesitated, unwilling to comply with the sudden change of topic but his thoughts derailed when the next words came out of her mouth.

"She was quite pleased, and I'll be glad to have something to distract her, if I'm honest... I figured out what Neji-nii was saying Lady Ama sent me early." Sighing she turned to him, patting her face lightly with one of the white towels, focused on the job at hand and therefore missing the way his jaw tightened and back straightened at her next words.

"Gaara-kun arrived yesterday, in the evening while we were...while we sparred." She mumbled. "It...would appear there...may be interest, um... we don't usually host guests at the Main House for Konoha, especially during a wedding only...only family resides within the Main House so there's the possibility that..." she frowned then, annoyed with herself and the way her words jolted and jarred on her tongue instead of smoothly flowing.

Sasuke waited, watching her, eyes traveling over her face, over her hands, over her stance, searching, although for what he wasn't sure.

"Hanabi is under the impression he means to make an offer...of marriage." She could not get past those words without drawing some strength from a pause and closing her eyes she sighed. "I am not sure that she is correct as our customs are not broadcast for all the world to know but..."

Whatever he had been wanting to say, whatever thing had been worming around in his brain before this conversation was gone and with it his civility. Turning around he moved the sink, moving to fill it with scorching hot water that felt better and better the more it heated and burned at his hands.

"Good." He snapped, surprised by his sudden testiness. "At least it's not all on me and your sister then."

From the living room Hinata looked up, hearing the "Good" like a slap.

Hesitantly again she watched his shoulder blades moving as he washed the dishes, head bowed exposing the slender elegant curve of his pale neck, a shock against the black of his shirt and raven hair.

"...I've never considered...Gaara-kun, and... and I don't know if I can-" she began putting a hand delicately on the door frame. "I don't know if I can grow to love a person so quickly, it seems-"

"What makes you think I can?" Sasuke scoffed suddenly, glancing over his shoulder at her with unimpressed eyes, hands a mess of suds. "At least in your case there's the possibility that he's interested in you."

Startled Hinata blinked at him. "Hanabi... was more than happy to hear you wanted to see her this morning. It's... I don't think you've considered-"

"It doesn't matter. I'm just glad I'm not having to carry the whole burden of this thing after all." Abruptly he pushed past her, hands still a soapy mess. "I need to rest, the brats were up crying half the night because of the storm. Can you watch them?"

"...yes... yes of course-" but the door to his room suddenly slammed, plunging the house into a silence more suffocating than Hinata had ever felt before.

* * *

 **DNAngel7:  
** I honestly always see Sasuke changing first most of the time. Maybe because she's so different from the interactions he has with other girls? I dunno. I like exploring his changes. My first fic I think I slid back and forth between them pretty evenly but lately, as of the last three I think I'm definitely using Sasuke as the first to start noticing differences in his thinking. I will add that this is not done on purpose. I am not that good, it just happens lol.

 **GraceJabulile** : GOOD CALL. Thanks for that! My next chapter was fueled by a lot of reading. Thank you for reviewing!  
 **LeafNinja:** you know, I really appreciate that you think I rock, but mostly I'm glad you like my story! thanks!  
 **Momiji D:** I am also wondering what the heck she was going to say as I have no idea- although I do know it will come up again, sometime. Part of the fun of writing is figuring out what the heck is going on. :) And yes, Hinata wanting to punch it out made me happy, as well as Sasuke's "Oh thank god" response. :) Thank you for reviewing.  
 **:** I kind of touched on the marriage thing. I think for Sasuke it's like "Someone has to have these kids, and I'm not going to go looking around because that sounds irritating so...this sounds better." I know it doesn't sound like much- maybe I need to rewrite the convo he had with Naruto about it. OR maybe I'm missing a part of the story from the anime or manga that might have changed my fanfic if I knew it? Is he like super against the Hyuuga? I'm not as well versed in the story after the war honestly, I kind of just went out on a limb.  
Also, I'm really glad you like the babies. Sasu is really getting in my heart. And yeah, I'm noting Sasuke is like "What is it with this child?" but not in a bad way in a curious way. :) I'm glad you're liking them.  
 **Guest who mentioned NejiHina:** I didn't know... I genuinely did not know he cared about her that way until I wrote that scene and then I was like "OH NO." Cuz yeah. I'm sad for Neji. :(  
 **Mikan:** Hina is such a little piggy but I love that. I can see her having really round cheeks. :) I feel bad for Naruto, he's like "what the heck are you doing man?" but in a "You're better than this." way. Sasuke should just talk to him but ya know, boys and talking... they're not always great at it.  
 **Manaoki and Guest:  
** I did mention why he's engaged to Hanabi but I'm noticing some confusion on the issue and I guess perhaps I was not very clear. I think he may have ended up considering Hinata if she had been considered heiress but she gave it up awhile ago by this time and it just turned out this way. It's completely political, and yeah a little ew. But it's supposed to be. Cuz writing an attractive Hanabi I don't really believe would be that hard. :) she's hina's sister after all.

Much love darlings,  
Inky


	9. Chapter 9

_**A.N**_

 _ **Um. I am having some issues writing- as can be seen in the last chapter of Oenomel. So please forgive the quality coming out of my fried brain.**_

 _ **Sometimes you gotta just keep chugging along so that the train doesn't stop completely. I gave myself a little break to see if maybe it would pass but nada. So here I am, trying it out again.**_

 _ **For the sake of mercy I give you these quotes:**_

 _ **"If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do."**_

 _ **-William Zinsser**_

 _ **"There are three rules to writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."**_

 _ **Maugham**_

 _ **"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club"**_

 _ **-Jack London**_

 _ **Here I go with my club, ladies and gentlemen.**_

 _ **-inky**_

* * *

"It's a little weird for me when the baby moves around inside her." Naruto made a face like someone had put a sea slug on his hand. "She's so tiny, it makes her skin do this...wavy thing." His hand moved in a smooth ocean shape in the air as they walked and Gaara stared at him for a long moment before allowing himself a short little snort of amusement.

"I assume you have not told her you think this."

"Do I look suicidal?" Naruto's blue eyes widened until they encompassed almost all of the sky. "No, sirree." Then his smile came back, softer than usual as he padded along beside his friend.

"Sometimes, you can see this tiny foot when the baby stretches."

Gaara studied him then, affected by the quietness of his voice and the tenderness on his face. It seemed strange to hold this man in his head with the one that screamed at the top of his lungs covered in blood with the glow of a thousand suns bursting from within him during the war.

But that was one of the things that Gaara had found so admirable-enviable even, in Naruto. He didn't have to keep his face tense, his eyes open, his back protected. He was willing to live as passionately on the battle field as off it. There was nothing braver than that.

"Do you want a boy or a girl?" It was one of the questions Temari had told him to ask. He wasn't an expert with the baby thing, although eyeing Temari and Shikamaru lately he was starting to wonder if perhaps he should be getting better acquainted.

"Either." Naruto exclaimed a little wildly then more determinedly. "Both."

Gaara's smirk was gentle and as they approached the ramen shop he let out a sigh, studying the moving crowds around them with interest. People bowed at the sight of their hokage and when their eyes slid off the distinguishing blonde head beside him they widened as they recognized the redhead of the Suna Kazekage, once so feared. Their bows to him were only a fraction less deep than those for Naruto and he found that to be an accomplishment.

"It seems you have been doing a good job, your village seems content." Stepping inside Ichiriki's the shout of "welcome!" echoed from behind the counter and Naruto grinned, waving lazily before sitting down.

"Yeah, I think it's going pretty well. It'd be better if Sasuke were pulling his weight. The bastard has been missing a lot lately."

"The wedding must be taking up his time." Gaara began uncertainly, wondering if he were to wed how he would manage his duties. Unlike Konoha there were still shinobi on the loose in Suna, wandering in the desert and using it to hide themselves. They were mostly bands of defectors, unable to return to the land they had abandoned in the war.

Unable to find work because all they had ever known before was training to defend the land they had betrayed turned them sour. Ruthless and mercenary they preyed on the towns in the wildest reaches of Suna, where Gaara's power and influence waned. He had his hands full still, he couldn't very well drop everything for a party, even if it was his wedding.

But had not Hanabi-sama said Hinata was good at planning such a thing? Maybe it wouldn't be an issue then. She seemed to be very understanding...

The thought made him shift uncomfortably and cursing his extremely pale skin he busied himself with gathering chopsticks in his hand, hoping his face didn't match his hair.

"I guess it could be that he's busy with that, although I doubt it." Naruto admitted. "I'm still not sure what the hell that's all about. I don't think I had ever seen him so much as speak to Hanabi Hyuuga before the engagement. I get the family is offering a lot in the dowry and support to rebuild the Uchiha Compound... but still." He made a face. "Just seems like an awful lonely way to be married."

Gaara studied him out of the corner of his eye, pondering for a moment what was appropriate to discuss. He had not been present for large parts of what occurred after the war, but he had heard of Hinata Hyuuga's outspoken declaration to Naruto on at least two occasions in the years prior to obtaining his goal as Hokage. Evidently they had not been reciprocated.

"...is there a reason that the Hyuuga are a family one would not want to be... connected to?" Gaara looked up in surprise as a bowl of ramen was presented to him without having ordered anything. Naruto winked mildly at his expression. "They always save the best stuff for me. Just trust it."

Clearing his throat the Hokage then shrugged, as though settling himself into a comfortable position before going into battle. "About your question though... I'm not sure I understand?" Naruto's voice was calm, the kind of calm that was being cautious. Gaara had learned to detect the tone from Temari who would sit next to him at meetings with diplomats from the other hidden villages. Between them a paper would sit innocently, and absently Temari would doodle on it, codes that signified she was noticing hesitation, curiosity, wariness.

Eventually after years of practice he could now hear the slight change in inflection when someone was warily approaching a subject, toeing the line of the topic without knowing how well that was going to go.

He had never heard that sound coming from Naruto before, and it occurred to him then that he was indeed the hokage, for more reasons than what he accomplished on the battle field.

He learned well, everything from how to defend a village and people, to the art of keeping it safe from behind a desk or at a council chamber.

Well, Gaara had also learned some things. Namely, when his bluntness would be of more use than his delicacy.

"I believe you could have been welcomed into the Hyuuga household by marriage to the eldest daughter, no?" He lifted some noodles carefully from his bowl, watching the pleasant steam rise off them with the scent of ginger and chilies.

Naruto held very still beside him, blinking his blue eyes steadily at the bowl before him, and his empty mouth was more telling of what was happening within his mind than anything he could have said.

"I'm only telling you this because you're my friend." He murmured finally, any sort of bantering tone gone as he let his shoulders lower slightly.

Gaara grew still, holding his breath, listening to the pounding of his blood the way he would if he were hunting with his brother, the bowstring to his shoulder, his sights on prey who had stiffened at the scent of him approaching.

"With the way that Neji Hyuuga...fell during the war, I had every intention of following through and marrying Hinata." Naruto muttered. "I loved her- love her, actually. I still do, just not... quite the way she was hoping." He sighed then, finally stirring the broth in his bowl slowly with his spoon.

"Sakura?" Gaara slid his green eyes sideways, watching as a rueful smile full of an affection too fierce to dilute filtered through his features.

"It's always been Sakura." Naruto's shrug was tired. "I suppose it was selfish, but I couldn't do that to Hinata anymore than to myself. Marrying her would have resulted in both of us miserable." He finally lifted his noodles from his bowl, blue eyes a bit morose. "I just wish she was doing better. Hiashi and I have been discussing how she would make a better choice as clan head during this time of peace, but I have a feeling she may be refusing the position." He frowned. "Hanabi is strong, but leadership has never been her strong suit. Give the girl a weapon though..." He drifted off.

Feeling the unsteady ground he was now wandering onto Gaara kept his face calm, smooth like an undisturbed body of water.

"Oh? So you are encouraging Hiashi-sama to assign Hinata-sama as heiress once more?"

"Yes. But that's me sharing as a friend not Hokage, so keep that to yourself." Naruto threw in sharply, giving him a look. Gaara smiled back thinly. "Noted."

"She couldn't have been considered if she was married to me either. Can't lead a clan the size of the Hyuuga and be the Hokage's wife. No one has that kind of work ethic." Naruto shrugged.

Stiffening Gaara pursed his lips. "So it's been decided that she will be-?"

"No, not yet. Hiashi is stalling I think. Maybe the wedding is kind of sucking up more of everyone's time than I realize. It does sound like it's turning out to be a big deal."

Gaara nodded, unable to speak as he processed what this might mean to him now that he knew.

"I hope it's just that... and not that Hinata isn't willing to consider taking her rightful place as head of the clan." The blonde sighed. "I wish... I could just ask her but honestly I think she's been avoiding me for a while. I just thought she would need time, but..." he shrugged. "It's my third wedding anniversary soon, I'm not sure how much more time she needs."

"Hinata-sama seems well." Gaara put in, surprisingly uncomfortable considering who he was speaking to. It took him a moment to realize that he was in fact defensive. Defensive for Hinata's sake. Stiffly he added, "She's been training hard."

"Has she?" Naruto seemed surprised. "Why are you staying there anyway? Did you have business with Hiashi? You could have stayed with us- or we could have found you your own place."

Gaara remained quiet for a long moment. In his memory Hinata sat in a puddle of mud with the rain pouring around her, her hair a darkness that bled along her shoulders and face. He was no fool, he had seen sadness and despair on those around him for so long that it was like a smell in the air, or a slap in the face when it showed up, undeniable. There was something that was hiding within her, something painful she was not letting go, although she was good at what she did and like a good shinobi it was nearly invisible.

Her smiles were almost believable. Perhaps because of her beauty, or the kindness in her gaze. Maybe other people confused her delicate features softened by sadness for quiet serenity. Like they had confused his silence for indifference long ago.

Turning his green eyes to his friend he started in surprise to see Naruto studying him, chewing slowly. Wondering what he would think as the Hokage of Konoha and then what he would think as his friend he breathed in slowly.

"...I..." he began slowly, feeling heat rise to his face that he had no control over.

Slowly the blonde raised his eyebrows.

"...I wanted... to spend some time... with Hinata-sama." Gaara finally managed delicately, lifting noodles in the air to cool although he didn't get anywhere near them with his mouth, which felt suddenly dry as a sandstorm.

Naruto's slow blinks lasted about two seconds before he leaned back a little, eyes screwed up in confusion.

"Hold on." He began, his voice already carrying the hints of disbelief Gaara had anticipated.

"I spent some time with her when she was sent to Suna with the last Konoha envoy, and I found she's extremely pleasant...and kind... and seemed comfortable in my presence. I appreciated her interest in Suna, it was genuine and she's... she's very beautiful and..." Gaara was blabbing. When had he last _blabbed?_ He was fairly sure that Kankuro had been the one genetically gifted in that area, so how was this happening now?

Naruto seemed uncharacteristically at a loss for words, his mouth opening slowly with his shock.

"I've been considering it for some time, but since the wedding was happening soon, and your baby was due to be born any minute, and I wanted to see her as well, I thought it best..." Gaara finally drew in a breath, pleasant despite his distress with the scent of kimchi and ginger from his untouched lunch.

To his credit Naruto Uzumaki slammed his usually uncontrollable howling screamer shut with some gargantuan effort, although his eyes might have still being trying to pop out of his head and stiffly he turned back to his ramen bowl, to the comfort of normalcy.

"Am I understanding...?" He began shakily. "That you're considering becoming the brother in law of Sasuke Uchiha, and perhaps stealing the heiress of the Hyuuga to Suna?"

It had not occurred to him in this manner. Gaara felt an internal flinch that almost manifested itself outwardly although with some effort he managed to just press his lips into a thin line.

"I would not have put it in such language." He murmured thinly. "But yes, I suppose that is accurate."

"Well damn."

For a moment they both sat there picturing family gatherings and wincing a little.

It wasn't so much that Gaara and Sasuke didn't get along, far from it.

They just didn't _get_.

There was no _along_.

They had never been in a situation where they could figure out how much they disliked or tolerated each other. To say there was the possibility of _like_ was rather low. Gaara had become much more amiable, certainly but he was about as socially forward as a brick without his sister's guidance.

And Sasuke was Sasuke. Marginally polite and generally in control of himself. But still Sasuke. About as friendly as a hosed down porcupine.

"So, the dinner you said you were going to instead of coming over to have dinner with Sakura and I...?" Naruto inquired hesitantly.

Gaara nodded. "Yes."

"Hmm..." One heavy pat on the slight redhead's back nearly sent him into the bowl in front of him and Naruto flashed him a grin. "Good thing you're the Kazekage and fear nothing, hm?"

"Right." Gaara coughed.

"Even death by awkward."

The next reply was a little less enthusiastic as the fearless Kazekage scrunched his eyes. "Right."

And for some time they were quiet, slurping up noodles and (in Naruto's case) asking for seconds. But as he waited the Hokage glanced warily at his quiet friend, picturing Hinata and Sasuke in the darkness of the training field, causing the noodles in his belly to writhe like snakes.

Maybe he wouldn't bother with a second serving. He wasn't feeling particularly hungry anymore.

* * *

Susa was practically giddy. The rains disappeared as though they had never been and he encouraged the sunshine that poured on the Village Hidden in the Leafs, spinning a lightning bolt round and round his finger, a tiny bracelet of death.

On his cloud he looked boyish, a teen lounging in his home, daydreaming as he whistled a tune.

But the tune had the aspects of thunder and tempests, the languid rest of his body was suspended by clouds to his bidding and the sheer deliciousness of his body's make up would put most women to shame.

Except his sister of course.

The Goddess Ama appeared beside him made of light, her mouth pressed into a thin line even as her eyes blazed with the ferocity of a star mid explosion in the cosmos.

"You seem rather pleasant." She began mildly, folding her delicate long fingered hands into the folds of her kimono. Those hands had created and wielded suns in orbit. They had brought drought and life. They had wielded katanas that dripped both holy and mortal blood.

They were poetry in bones and skin.

"I rather am." Susa sang, eyes closed against the brilliance of his elder sister. It was taxing being around her in the same way it was taxing not having something to destroy. Watching them rebuild was always so difficult. For a god bent on calamity and death there was always the aspect of regrowth that he had to endure with bated breath. Like a child knocking over towers of blocks he could hardly wait, always wanting to destroy before the architecture was even solid.

In the end if left to his own devises there would be nothing but wreckage and boredom. He knew this was the way of the world but it didn't make it any easier to bear the wait for things to _get better_ before he was allowed once more to tear it all down.

Lady Ama studied him, and then turned her eyes to the mortal world, looking for the thing that had so clearly brought his tantrum to an end. The appearance of Gaara had been a curve ball. It had sent him into a furious rage that she had tolerated only because he remained with her in their realm, abiding by the holy rules of their kind.

But just barely.

Or maybe she was being naive, if a goddess could be. Perhaps he had decided to intervene again.

"Your silliness with Gaara won't pay off." Lord Susa murmured beside her, his voice carrying the crack of ocean waves causing calamity on the shores. "His interest has too much of the platonic to it."

"Everything starts platonic." Lady Ama whispered, searching the village with eyes that saw and heard and tasted.

"It's like you haven't heard of love at first sight." Susa grumbled. "You're so dry. I would have taken advantage, unlike you."

"Love at first sight." Ama's sigh signified her contempt and for a moment the light of the sun wavered. "I will not cause a mortal to fall in love by force. What a petulant thing to do. Only gods without real power resort to such measures. And I am far from that." Her gaze flickered then to the children that like pinpoints of light glimmered in a different shade than all the other souls below. They were in the wrong time frame and therefore their auras shone unique in a sea of similar flames.

And there she found the thing that was making Susa so very happy.

"Neji." His name left her mouth softly with her power, dropping heavy as a stone to the earth below, a blessing to let him hold himself together until she arrived to sow his spirit back into one piece. With some consternation she turned to look at her brother, who undoubtedly had heard her whispered word with distaste at having his fun ruined.

"He tore himself apart trying to convince himself and the Uchiha he wasn't jealous." Sasu languished absently. "What a pity. Shall we call forth the other Uchiha- what was his name? Itachi? I always thought he would be a better guardian. This one died too recently."

"We agreed Neji was the best choice, you chose him with me." Lady Ama's tone had the sparks of fire within the bell tones and Lord Susa closed his eyes as though bored. In reality he was feeling the crackle of his holiness over his skin.

Their fights were always just beneath the surface, chaos and order, light and dark. It was rather unfair that he had been assigned what the mortals called "evil".

He was not evil. Just bored. Why could their tiny pea sized mind's not understand that?

"He's been very quiet. I thought he would care more about the outcome." Susa rolled his eyes. "Perhaps seeing the world he was supposed to still be in has made his soul bitter." Blue eyes the color of the ocean abyss lingered on his sister. "After all, he was not supposed to die- he would not have, if he had not been trying to save your _favorite."_

Lady Ama's face did not move, which was unfortunately more of a show of emotions than if she had laughed at his jab. Naruto was a son of light, tied inexplicably to the goddess of the sun like the rays of sunshine were tied to the faraway star. He shone brighter than the others, his golden glow contagious and therefore capable of engulfing the lands in prosperity and peace. It was a time of rejuvenation. The time Lord Susa hated the most.

Chaos was not patient.

"I am going to go sow him back up." She replied inexplicably. "Are you coming?"

"Let him tatter. We can use Itachi."

"I like him." Lady Ama frowned. "I do not want him wandering through the world in pieces for all eternity. I will never get him back together."

Lord Susa sighed, "All right, fine." Then almost pouting he shoved himself to his feet to stand with his sister as they descended to the earth below, getting closer to the stuttering glow of Neji's torn spirit. "But they are so _pretty_ when they explode into fireworks."

Lady Ama's disgusted breath was almost a grunt if a grunt could be elegant, the sound a mountain range makes when bothered. "You are awful."

* * *

He had not realized that he was genuinely tired until he was being woken halfway through the day by one tiny fat fist placing a cookie on his forehead.

Every muscle in his body was tight and hard from the strain of keeping himself from jumping up kunai in hand to defend himself. It was instinct, engraved on his psyche the way a sneeze is engraved into our biology and so he closed his eyes tightly for a moment to let the pressure of the sensation pass.

Hina's soft baby breath lingered on his face.

"Ko says if you twist your eyes like that they get stuck." She whispered, leaning her ribs against his side heavily.

Slowly, eyes still closed Sasuke reached up and pushed the cookie off his face, brushing the crumbs off his forehead with a sigh. "Hina, what are you doing?"

Carefully so as to not knock her right off the bed he rolled onto his back to face her, feeling her little paws moving along his rib cage until they rested on his chest, pale Hyuuga eyes peering at him intently. He wondered then as he studied her chubby cheeks dotted with smears of chocolate chips if he would have a child with pale eyes. Would he or she look like Hina?

Would his sharingan eventually tinge the pale gray with the blaze of red she loved so much?

"I ate cookies." Hina whispered, rubbing at her chin with her elbow and getting the left over chocolate on her sleeve. "And milk."

He was noticing that her voice, still soft had less of a stutter and her eyes were unaffected by his stare. It was hard to remember her now quivering in his bed the first night. She was shaking so hard then he had been worried she would fall apart.

"Okay." He replied, unsure of what else to say with her practically pinning him to the bed with her hands.

Smiling shyly she picked up the cookie that he had pushed onto the pillow and put it back on his forehead. "I saved it ...for you."

It was all he could do to sigh, taking the cookie off his face again, but this time held on to it.

"Thank you."

Her smile could have challenged the sun to a contest. "Sasu-kun is sleeping." She murmured.

Surprised Sasuke sat up on his elbow, looking around wonderingly to see that the sun was well past halfway through the heavens, signifying afternoon. The rain and the clouds with it had vanished, only the blaze of the sun shone. That idiot Susa must have got his butt kicked by his sister. Hopefully.

Downstairs he could hear the rush of water in the kitchen as Hinata likely washed dishes and the quiet that signified either Hina was right and Sasu was asleep or he was up to something.

It occurred to him then that maybe it was a ploy and Hina was a distraction for Sasuke while Sasu got into things he shouldn't be, but one look at Hina's earnest wide eyed face made him doubt.

"Are... are you going to eat it?" Hina's hands gripped her knees as she studied him, holding the cookie without any intention of putting it in his mouth but also no idea what to do with it.

Sasuke just watched her pale eyes flicker to the cookie and back to his face, the Hyuuga features were calm, nonchalant. It really did appear to come in the genetics.

"...I'm not sure." he began and then curiously, "Would you like to eat it for me?"

Joy.

Tiny pearly teeth appeared as she smiled with her tiny pink lips and her tiny pink tongue licked chocolate from the corner of her mouth. Everything about the child was petite. Even in her chubbiness.

"Okay!"

He handed it over then with some relief, watching with growing fascination as she held the item with both hands and took a bite like it was a giant sandwich.

For a moment he tried to picture Hinata, grown and elegant with her face always clean and her pale eyes like jewels covered in chocolate taking a bite out of a cookie with that much abandon and he felt his face twist in the unfamiliar shape of a full on grin.

Seeing his expression Hina smiled back at him, one cheek chipmunk thick with cookie.

"Hina?" Hinata's voice called softly from below, obviously trying to be quiet. "Hina, where are you?"

With her mouth entirely stuffed Hina looked over her shoulder wide eyed and Sasuke sighed, allowing the smile to wash off his face as he remembered suddenly how he was now scheduled to go to dinner at the Hyuuga Compound to see his fiance, his future father in law and Gaara. It was unlikely he could come up with a more awkward list of people to spend the evening with.

With some acidity Sasuke shoved himself to his feet ripping off his shirt to change as he called, "She's up here."

"Oh no." Hinata sighed, and her steps sounded as she walked up to the second floor. "I'm sorry, I turned around for one second and-" she stopped with a sound like getting her toes crushed, spinning around at the sight of Sasuke shirtless in his room, pushing clothes around hanging in his closet.

Absently he glanced over his shoulder at her, frowning.

"What?"

"N-n-nothing." Hinata snapped back, surprised by the force in her reply as much as Sasuke was. "Hina-chan, let's go downstairs please."

"M'kay." Hina agreed, scrambling off the bed.

Sasuke cocked his head, mildly confused but mostly irritated by her tense shoulders and her talking with her back to him. "What's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem." Hinata grabbed Hina up as soon as the child was beside her, striding out the door with her like she was making an escape. From the doorway he could see her neck red as a lobster, exposed because of her ponytail.

Irritation crawled over his spine, although he wasn't sure why. For a moment he almost let it go, but deciding he had been extremely pleasant of late he was due a little grumpiness he followed.

"Hinata."

She was downstairs now, putting Hina down with a shaky pat to her head before scrambling into the kitchen like hell hounds were after her.

"Hm?" strain was heavy in her voice and with a sort of abandon she shoved her hands into the dishes she was finishing up in the sink.

"What is wrong with you?" He flinched a little internally at his tone, wondering if perhaps that was a little too strong. But if he was honest he was rather looking for a fight. Might as well get it over with before they showed up at the Hyuuga Compound and sat through an awkward dinner while worrying about toddlers and Gaara of the Sands.

He had never been so irritated with the Kazekage. Naruto appeared to think highly of him but then he did think highly of a lot of people, so that didn't amount to a lot in Sasuke's book.

"What?" Hinata sounded both wary and defensive. "I'm... washing dishes."

"You're melting." He threw a hand at her like it should have had kunai and she flinched like it did.

"You're-" she floundered, eyes still averted. Nervously she waved a pale hand back at him weakly. "You're..."

Irritation was over, he was full on annoyed now. No, what had Neji said earlier?

Vexed. He was vexed. He rather liked that word. It had bite.

"Hinata." He snapped finally.

"You were changing! You- you're shirtless- I don't -I'm not-Can you get a shirt on please?" she finally burst out, turning right around with her hands on her face to contain her blush from liquefying everything.

At her outburst Sasuke took a step back like she'd shoved him, face twisted in surprise and disbelief.

"What?" He scoffed. "You've been on missions with- you've trained in- Nevermind." he began, and had he been someone else he would have thrown his hands in the air in exasperation.

How had he ended up here? With melting Hyuugas and mini Hyuugas and Hyuuga -in-laws and Hyuuga fiances and Hyuuga ghosts? How?

As he stormed towards his room to put a shirt on he glanced to his right at the dark head of hair and matching black eyes giving him a look from the couch.

"Don't be mean to Big Hinata!" Sasu snapped sleepily, rubbing one eye with the back of his fist.

At this Sasuke allowed himself a growl and forced himself to keep moving.

"We're leaving in ten minutes." He shouted from the top of the stairs before slamming his bedroom door shut.

He was just about to take his pants off to finish changing when he froze, Hina was back in his bed with pillows piled up like towers, blinking at him.

Taking a deep breath Sasuke grabbed his clothes off the dresser he had dumped them on and walked into his bathroom to change, feeling a little hypocritical all of a sudden.

* * *

Hanabi looked like something out of a fairy tale. Hinata stared at her, openly gawked in fact until she realized what she had been doing and shut her mouth with a snap. Beside her little sister, she felt instantly ancient, an old aunt perhaps. Maybe even her mother.

The kimono Hanabi had chosen was the right kind for the season. In it the threads of spring leapt from the folds of the long drooping sleeves, greens and yellows, soft azure blues and blooming pinks that trailed up the hem. Her obi tightened around her waist and caused the hour glass shape of her body to show where usually she was hidden behind the pleats of fabric to comfortable looseness that Hinata understood. No one liked fainting from the tightness of their clothing.

In her hair a single glittering plum blossom made of glass glittered and she had taken a page out of Hinata's book, allowing her hair to be combed to a shining brown that fell down the length of her back.

After a moment of surprise that she forced to choke down Hinata had sat down at the table, watching out of the corner of her eye as both the young men in the room took in the vision that the youngest Hyuuga presented with an equal lack of preparedness.

"Good evening." Hanabi smiled, and she couldn't hide the pleasure at the startled looks on both her fiance and Gaara's face.

To their credit both young men managed to bow and avert their eyes at the sound of her voice, Sasuke lifting a cup of tea to his mouth, eyes downcast and Gaara turned sharply to Hinata.

"Was the wedding planning successful, this afternoon?"

Hinata smiled, watching as the last sheen of pink disappeared from his face from having caught himself staring at Hanabi. There was something adorable about Gaara that always made her want to pinch his cheeks. Something was soft inside him, and she knew like she knew there was greatness in Naruto and kindness in Sasuke that it had always been there. It made sense when something soft and breakable hid within you that you would wrap it up tightly in protection. She was glad he was now more open to showing it.

"Yes. Or, at least I hope so." She lied, glancing at Hanabi who settled down beside Sasuke. The Uchiha's dark eyes had been pinned on Hinata in her moment of reply and at the feel of his fiance beside him he turned rapidly to her. Too quietly to hear what he said Hinata watched as he leaned forward towards Hanabi, whispering something at a close proximity that she doubted her father would approve. Thankfully, he had not yet arrived.

"I'm afraid I'm not as good at it as Hanabi thinks." She continued, dragging her eyes back to Gaara when she watched Hanabi's face flush pink and her eyes widen at whatever Sasuke had said.

She wanted to smile, she wanted to picture herself rushing to her sister's room after the men were gone, holding her hands and asking with excitement what he had said, why she looked so pink cheeked, so pleased.

Instead her stomach was clenching hard and as she turned to look at Gaara she licked her lips, forcing a smile on her face with the same cold practice she did while undercover on missions.

Gaara's green gaze lingered on her and he smiled a bit before turning away. "My siblings can be a handful as well. But, I suppose it is our lot to indulge them, isn't it?"

Remembering Kankuro and Temari's loud banter and Gaara's cool and calming presence Hinata's smile became more real. "I suppose so. Although, I think perhaps you have had significantly more practice."

"Oh, I am aware." He smirked then, and with a trip in his voice that hinted at nerves he added. "You... look very beautiful tonight, Hinata-sama. Or rather... I always think so, but never have... never have the gall to say so."

Startled Hinata stared, the surprise almost a real taste on her tongue. "I'm...thank you- I didn't think anyone would so much as look at me with Hanabi at the same table." She looked at her tea, wincing internally at herself. No one liked a self deprecating conversation. Gaara however seemed not to notice.

"I think the Hyuuga main house was rather blessed with both of you. Not so, for our family." He smirked then and with a half turn to look at Hiashi stepping into the room commented. "Temari is our saving grace."

Opening her mouth to try to say something she watched him look at her, mildly surprised by her frown only to stop before they could continue their conversation when Hiashi settled across from Hinata.

"What a pleasure to have a full table tonight." Hiashi's voice was honestly pleased and as he settled down he glanced at the two men who joined him, sizing them up with considerable interest. "I trust you have had some sake offered, forgive me that I wasn't available to welcome you both."

"Your staff has always been very hospitable, Hyuuga-san." Sasuke replied calmly.

"I take it you frequent the Hyuuga Compound often." Gaara added suddenly, and Hiashi nodded at the servers who began to divulge their dinner onto the table as quietly as possible. "I have found everyone as you say. Very obliging."

"I suppose I have not been here as often as I should have." Sasuke admitted, sliding his gaze to Hanabi for a moment and then back to the table firmly. "Or as often as I would have liked."

Hanabi did not turn to look at him but rather stared at her plate, her chopsticks held tightly in her hands. There was mostly a stillness to her face that Hinata thought was a valiant effort at remaining calm. But of all the skills that Hanabi had practiced the least, keeping her feelings in check was the winner. Her eyes widened with a sort of disbelief as she gently arranged her chopsticks in her fingers.

Wanting to divert attention Hinata cleared her throat softly. "...How...how were the rest of the wedding plans finished this afternoon, Sister?" She watched as Hanabi looked up at her, blinking rapidly to clear her frazzled brain.

"Good. I believe the Crane Folding Party will be held next week, if it all goes according to plan." As if remembering something she turned to Sasuke, albeit a little more hesitantly than before. "I...haven't yet received a list of guests from you. Could we perhaps talk about that later?"

Sasuke's gaze flickered to Hanabi then. "Of course. I apologize, I have been preoccupied."

"Crane Folding Party?" Gaara finally dared. "I'm afraid I'm in the dark."

"Cranes are considered lucky." Hinata began softly, turning to look at him while stirring her soup absently. "We gather friends and family for a small party in the gardens for dinner and origami crane folding. We need 1001 to hang from the cherry blossom tree where the wedding will be held. To bless the marriage."

"I'm glad you will be here, Gaara-sama." Hanabi added. "It's supposed to be family and close friends so-"

"Oh, I'm sorry if I'm imposing-" He began, eyes widening in surprise.

"Nonsense." Sasuke's voice was surprising and almost sarcastic in it's reassurance. With a sake cup to his lips he blinked his dark eyes at the Kazekage, face unreadable in it's stillness.

Hinata shifted then with sudden tension. A flicker of chakra whispered through the table like a cold spring breeze before a thunder storm and her Hyuuga gaze snapped to Sasuke's sharp as a kunai to a target.

His stare slid then from Gaara's slight frown to hers and held for one, two beats too long. With a smirk he looked back down at his plate and instantly the pressure of the chakra, just the subtle change in the thickness in the air disappeared.

Hiashi and Hanabi looked wonderingly at the table, unsure of how to continue. There had been the tang of dislike on the oxygen they had all breathed reluctantly following Sasuke's obviously sarcastic one word statement. Hinata suddenly traced the outline of her kunai strapped to her thigh beneath the cover of her kimono, not because she would ever use it against anyone at the table, but for the comfort gripping a blade brought.

"The Crane Folding Party will be a dinner, and actually I assume the Hokage and Sakura-san will be invited as well. Since they are like Uchiha-san's family." Hanabi was the first to break the silence, bravely shattering the tension with her young voice.

Gaara trained his green eyes on her, on the reassuring smile on her face and the chatter pouring from her mouth. Decidedly he kept his gaze from the Uchiha, and his sand still despite the frenzy his chakra was wanting to cause within it's container.

"It's a little stuffy to be doing nothing but formal parties though, so I'm hoping perhaps you would be interested in training a little with us, right Sister? You won't mind sharing the Kazekage with me for a few sparring sessions will you?"

Hinata stared at her sibling, bravely keeping herself from choking on the tiny bite of pickled ginger in her mouth at her statement. "I... sharing?" She began, flushing crimson.

"I would love to." Gaara cut in before she could continue. "I don't think I have had the pleasure of sparring with a Byakugan user in a very long time. I look forward to it."

Then, almost embarrassed Hanabi turned to Sasuke. "You will join us, won't you, Uchiha-san?"

It was insanity, and Hinata wasn't sure what made her do it. Perhaps it was the idea of having Gaara and Sasuke on a training field with weapons drawn and the tension of their chakras still in her mouth coating her tongue in the taste of metal. Whatever it was, before she could think she blurt, "Oh no he can't."

All eyes turned to her and Hinata blinked several times.

"Whyever not?" Hanabi frowned at her openly, confused. Sasuke's black eyes were interested beside her, reflecting the lights of the lanterns.

At the extended silence Hinata lowered her head sheepishly and Sasuke suddenly cut in. "I mentioned to your Sister that I had a healing wound from a spar with Naruto earlier this week." He explained.

He lied.

He covered for her.

Hinata stared at her fingers.

"Oh." Hanabi's surprise was tinged with worry. "Are you all right?"

"Just a cracked rib. It will heal on it's own."

"Can't Sakura-san do something to speed the process? I wouldn't want you in pain during the wedding."

"I won't be." Sasuke's tone was telling of the finality of the conversation. Across from his eldest daughter Hiashi let out a breath."That's good to hear. It appears you have gained a worrying sister in Hinata, Uchiha-san." He stated.

"She does worry." Hanabi admitted with a rueful smile before turning back to Gaara, unable to keep the mischief from lighting her face. "I can't imagine what she will be like with her husband one day."

Beside her Hinata felt Gaara's body tense minutely.

 _I'm in hell._ Hinata realized, pushing the vegetables on her plate around with her chopsticks feebly.

 _The gods have put me in hell._

* * *

It was the longest dinner she had ever had to suffer through and in the end she could stand it no longer and claimed, as was becoming routine, a headache.

Her father's concern made her feel guilty as he expressed his dislike of her sudden bouts of dizziness and pain, but Hinata tried to soothe him down before bidding everyone good night and heading towards her rooms even before the heated Sake was served.

Opening the door to her bedroom she turned and sealed it closed before scanning the place in the dim light of the moon through her curtains.

It was the first time she smiled in several hours when she finally activated her Byakugan and located the two toddlers hanging from the curtain rods, feet dangling, faces pinched with strain.

"That is quite the clever hiding spot." Hinata's voice was amused and as she walked over she watched in amazement as Sasu grabbed the curtain and slid down the length of it to the floor.

Hina on the other hand frowned and with a hiccup let go, grabbing on to the curtain at the last minute, slowing down her fall just enough that she only half landed on Sasu who burst into giggles at their tangled arms and legs.

"My Nii-san taught me." Sasu exclaimed proudly, pulling Hina up by the hand. "When we played Seek and Hide."

Still smiling and glad for the distraction Hinata crouched down, tucking her simple pale blue kimono around her knees. "Well, he did a wonderful job teaching you then. Are you hungry? I snuck some of the cake from dessert."

"Oh." Sasu began, looking hesitant although Hina's eyes had lit up like fireworks.

"And some onigiri." Hinata added with a smile, pulling a packet from the hidden pocket of her obi. "It might be a little squashed but-"

"Yay, cake!" Hina interrupted, taking the square of pastry and icing with gleeful smiles. Hinata watched with interest as Sasu admired his friend, studying her as she took a bite and delighted let out a "Mmmm," of pleasure.

They had only just sat down on their knees with her on her futon when a shadow blocked the dark light of the moon from the window and Hinata felt tension filter over her shoulders.

"You left too early." She commented softly, pushing Sasu's hair back from his face as he nibbled on a rice ball.

Sasuke's feet landing on her bedroom floor were nearly silent, and had she not been trained she would not have heard it.

"If I do recall, you left before I did." His tone was clipped and when she finally turned to look at him he was leaning against the window with his hands in his pockets, studying her with the same unsettling stare she had forgotten had perturbed her before- when she had not known him at all.

This was not how their interactions had been going in the last few days. She was surprised to feel tension along her spine and shoulders and with the same feel of liquid fight pulsing through her veins that she got before a battle she shifted in her kimono towards him, moving slowly and purposefully.

"You have been upset today." It was a statement and not a question. She was past asking questions. The headache she had faked downstairs was making good and crawling up her back to the base of her skull, festering there with fervor.

Sasuke seemed unconcerned by her statement. "It's an upsetting situation."

"Which part?"

"Possibly disappearing." He snapped, waving a hand at Sasu and Hina sitting innocently on the futon.

The kids were too busy with their snacks to pay attention, or at least so they thought. Watching from the darkest corner in Hinata's room Neji's pale ghostly eyes shifted from Hina to Sasu, watching the way their heads tilted as they listened, their mouths full, their ears open.

"We still have time. It's only been-" Hinata paused, realizing suddenly that the charade they had been playing had just barely been a week. It felt like an eternity. Most of her time was spent in the presence of one tiny or one elder Sasuke Uchiha and it was taking effect because never in her life would she have thought she would be having an argument with him in her dark bedroom.

Irritated with her reply Sasuke opened his mouth to state how in a hurry she seemed whispering to the Kazekage through dinner, blushing at his words. But as soon as the angry outburst made it to his tongue he choked on it, tasting the bitterness in his mouth with surprise.

"What was that, at dinner?" She finally dared, turning to face him, and by default seperating the kids sitting on the bed from the conversation.

"Which part?" He seemed nonplussed despite the inner panic going through his head and that was more infuriating than if he had ranted. Swallowing the scoff that surprised her in her throat Hinata stood, walking towards him with her hands clasped purposefully loose in front of her.

"Your chakra was... it -"

"What?" He waited, although a lack of patience in his tone revealed him perhaps not as calm as she had first thought.

"You threatened him." Hinata was close enough to whisper now, and she regretted that she did. She couldn't hide the frustration in her tone and wincing took a breath. She had almost hissed.

"Hardly." He actually rolled his eyes and Hinata's pale gaze widened at the blatant lie. "I beg your pardon?"

"I did not threaten Gaara of the Sands." Sasuke shifted uncomfortably, and the foreign movement on his body made Hinata step back, like he was a new thing she wasn't sure she could trust.

"What was that then?"

Sasuke paused, thinking. He had not meant to, it had slipped out. The animosity was like electricity on his skin and... being a lightning element sometimes it was hard to control it if something peaked his irritation. Although he couldn't place a name on the thing that had done it. Gaara's presence itself had annoyed him. With a lack of other possible explanations he snapped out, "He was ogling Hanabi."

"What, are, you, talking, about?" Hinata couldn't let the words leave her mouth without biting at each and every syllable. "Hanabi looked...Hanabi is beautiful, you were- I was..." she floundered and his gaze continued on her unrelenting.

Dragging in a breath to calm herself she finally began again. "Please do not use the word _ogle_ in reference to my Sister. She's beautiful, even I was surprised by it today. But no one was _ogling_ her." And the sharp turn of her gray eyes to his actually made him start a little. "Not even _you_."

The threat was soft like a well sharpened blade across skin, and to his surprise as much as hers he smirked broadly. And there, clear as day he could see Neji peering out at him from Hinata's face, a ghost within her eyes rather than haunting his house. _You will respect my sister. You will not be warned again. You have no choice._

"Fine. I won't _ogle_ your sister."

"Please, stop using that word." She grumped, feeling the tension dissipate finally. Sighing she turned to look at the two kids now laying on the bed, each nibbling on their respective treat absently, leaving crumbs everywhere.

"The maids are going to think I eat in my sleep."

"There's worse things they could be thinking." Sasuke muttered, and at his sentence Hinata hid her face in her hands recalling again the boots he had left as evidence of wrong doing on her bedroom floor.

Puzzled by her reaction he started towards the kids. "Okay, finish that now. We have to go."

"No." Sasu's reply was rapid and easy. "I don't want to."

Wordlessly Sasuke headed towards him, aiming to just grab the bundle of bones and trouble by force but to his surprise Neji suddenly appeared, making him stop abruptly.

Hinata's face lit instantly, pale eyes moons that rivaled the one shining outside. "Nii-san."

The wings were gone, as was the halo. Neji smiled a little, his solidity shifting softly as a breeze from the open window caressed through his frame. "Hime."

Trying not to sigh too heavily Sasuke took a deep breath through the nose. "So many Hyuugas."

"I don't recall anyone forcing you to marry my little cousin, Uchiha." Neji's eyes were irritable as they flitted over Sasuke's face and then to Hinata. "Perhaps you should have considered the proximity to Hyuugas before agreeing to the engagement. Regardless, I believe the children should stay here today."

Sasuke frowned, opening his mouth to reply only to stop when Hinata agreed happily. "Yes, I'll fetch the clothing I saved for them. You can rest tonight, Sasuke." She smiled at him, obviously too happy with her Nii-san's presence to notice his pinched brows.

"Hinata-" Sasuke began again, worry travelling over his spine like an ice cube, his eyes lingering on the ghost before him and the now unfamiliar stoic set of his jaw. They were not exactly friends but it would be hard for him to deny that Neji had been annoyingly friendly in the last few day. This was something else. Hearing the mild tension in his voice Hinata paused at her closet, turning to look at him, pale eyes curious.

"I need to speak with Hinata." Neji murmured suddenly, drawing both of their attention to him, his face still, signifying that whatever he was feeling was hidden well within the folds of his Hyuuga genetics and training.

Surprise flitted over Hinata's face, and confusion. "Oh..." she began and started again as Sasuke walked purposefully to the window, not needing to be told twice to get out.

"Sasuke, wait-"

"I'll be here early in the morning tomorrow." Sasuke snapped, glancing at Neji briefly. "I don't much care if you're okay with that."

Raising his chin just a little Neji nodded. "Understood."

And with that the Uchiha disappeared into the darkness, leaving Hinata standing there with her hands half raised to stop him before turning to her cousin, the confusion and trepidation mixed heavily with her broken hearted joy. "Nii-san."

Smiling sadly Neji sighed. "I have been reprimanded by the gods." He whispered, glancing at the now sleeping children on the futon with care before turning back to her.

"Reprimanded?" Hinata's voice wavered with worry. "Are you... are you okay?"

Neji drew in a soft breath then, hands clasped neatly behind his back.

"Yes." He began and then sighed. "And no."

* * *

 ** _Have you guys been wondering what the hold up is?_**

 ** _Me too._**

 ** _Anyone else wanna duke it out with my brain cells?_**

 ** _I apologize for this mess- also, I send love to all of you._**

 ** _Next chapter is already forming. This one just did not want to go on. Freaking thing._**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _inky_**


	10. Chapter 10

It should not have bothered Sasuke as it did, being ousted from the Hyuuga Main House like an unwanted visitor by an apparition. The bitterness in his mind scalded however, even as he arrived at his front door. Throwing the offending barrier closed behind him hard enough to shake the walls it echoed through the silence of the quiet house.

The darkness of his home yawned wide at him in reply, cast in moonlight and shadows and loneliness. He stared, stunned out of his tantrum by the sudden realization that there was no one to watch him fume.

The dining room was a mess of discarded cookie crumbs and the leftover plates Sasu and Hina had left behind. One of the chairs boasted Hinata's apron as a cloak on it's wooden shoulders and the remnants of cooking, living and laughing lingered in the oxygen molecules sleepily shifting through the dark.

He felt the pop of his frustration as he examined his home. Like an overinflated balloon the anger ebbed away leaving to his utter displeasure a wound as thin and grating as a papercut upon his mind. Neji's abrupt dismissal of him had hardly been out of character but for some reason Sasuke's own reaction surely seemed to be at odds with his own personality.

Plans had been forming within him as he stormed home. Plans of finding Naruto and telling him the truth, of ripping apart a training site for the sake of the frustration blooming in his chest.

Absently he removed his cloak and began the silent cold walk up the stairs to his bedroom, not bothering to turn the lights on, or undress as he slumped into bed.

Eyes closed, he missed the moment when the shadows in the dark shifted and solidified into three separate shapes.

"I told you." Susa's smug tone made the bright golden eyes of his sister flash to him in the shadows. "Something is changing."

"Perhaps you were correct." Her whisper had all the elegance of a good sport but beneath it's calm tones fire crackled. Turning to the third shadow she sighed, "Do you still wish to participate, then?"

Silently their companion gazed upon the dozing young man curled on the bed, dark eyes pensive despite there being nothing to think about. This was not a choice, after all. It was on par with wanting to breathe.

"Yes, of course." Itachi whispered, stepping forward out of the darkness and towards his brother. "Please."

* * *

There had been no sleeping for her restless mind. Not after the words the hardly visible shape of her cousin had whispered to her while her fingers ran anxious through the locks of the children sleeping on her futon.

No, sleep was for the good, and faithful. Sleep was for the selfless.

 _"I need your help, Hinata."_ Neji's whisper had lingered, like the touch of fog on her forehead and cheeks. _"I cannot stay here, I... I've already rent myself in two just envying the life you lead, the movement of your heart within you and the shame it...I cannot bear it."_

Hinata had stared appalled that she had not thought of this possibility, that she had been so very self absorbed as to not consider that her darling cousin, her beautiful guardian would struggle watching as life moved on without him while he lingered with the dead.

It made no sense, when he spoke of tearing himself apart, of having the Lady Goddess Ama stitch him back together but at the same time a primal terror had shivered up her spine as he spoke. Yes, her soul recognized this horror. Within her the spirit that made her eyes shine and her heartbeat winced against the mention of being torn to bits, of exploding into a million scattered particles like stardust through the universe, never whole, never resting.

As his words had faded Hinata had choked out an apology that he refused to acknowledge despite her desperation and when she begged him to watch the sleeping children he asked no questions.

Frantic, she had hoisted herself, kimono and all out the window. Climbing up the side of the house in a desperate search for the soothing calm of the night sky, for the stars that shone above, for the coolness of the evening spring breeze to ease her hot cheeks, her burning eyes.

It was there that Sasuke found her as the sun began to peek over the mountainous green of the horizon, tainting the navy pink and purple as it stretched. Perched at the edge of the roof tiles, knees drawn to her chin and arms wrapped tightly she might as well have been carved out of marble but for the flutter of her dark hair shifting over her shoulders.

At first his gaze sharpened on the glitter of her face and thought the dew had collected on her alarmingly still limbs as he landed at the bottom of the roof. Only as he approached, following the encroaching tide of butter yellow dawn light did he realize those were tears he was seeing, shining by the coming brightness of a new spring day.

Around them the world sang with bird song, with sighing spring breezes heavy with the promise of summer, scented with lemon grass and cherry blossoms soon to bloom bright through the Hyuuga property.

Still, he stopped before her with hands pressed into the darkness of his pockets, lips pursed tightly together so that when she finally raised her small face to peer at him something other than his irritated expression looked back at her.

"G...good morning." Her croak of a voice made her wince and bury face once more into her arms.

"Is it?" Slowly he crouched before her, surprised to find that between the silence of his home, the restful uninterrupted sleep and waking to the brightness of a day filled with the promise of her presence and that of the children his antagonism had faded to a quiet murmur.

Even more so at the sight of her tears it bled away from him with the chill of night in the brightness of dawn light. "What has happened?"

Clearing her throat softly Hinata looked up again, allowing herself the luxury holding the dark Uchiha eyes so feared and valued throughout their world. She understood Hina's fear of them, for if she was honest to see them in the dark unexpectedly shining blood red and fearsome she would have had hesitations despite her abilities as a shinobi.

Still, looking at him now she mused that they were soft. Pools of dark patient understanding and shakily she rubbed at one eye with the heel of her palm, smearing crusted particles of salt across her already splotchy face.

"Neji asked you to leave... because he had something he needed to share with me."

For a moment Sasuke froze, body tense as he pictured again the way that Neji's face had closed when he had inquired of the desperation on his face earlier in the week at the sight of his cousin. It had been a feral sort of question, aimed with intention to maim and to his growing horror he listened as she whispered of Neji's dilemma. The source of his spirit's pain was not disclosed, perhaps she did not know it or chose not to voice it but the seriousness of the situation did not escape him.

The longer they took to settle this odious bet between the gods, the more her cousin suffered and if there was one thing Hinata Hyuuga could not abide was causing someone unnecessary pain.

"Please... don't be angry with him. Last night he... I believe he was upset and so his rudeness, although it is inexcusable, it- I'm... I'm glad you're back." She sniffed softly, rubbing at her cheek with her shoulder before attempting to straighten her dark bangs with shaky fingers. "I can't do this alone, Sasuke."

Pale Hyuuga eyes lifted and peered at him through lashes wet with sadness and frustration that he understood. Face carefully smooth Sasuke gazed back, taking mental note of the pink sheen on her lips and the downward turn of that plump mouth.

"I am here." He mustered, turning away decidedly, clenching his fists within his pockets.

Dimly aware of her eyes filling once more with tears he listened as she breathed in shakily and pressed her forehead to her knee before her hand, cold from spending the night in her mourning vigil gripped his arm gently.

"Thank you."

With dark eyes magnetized to her fingers on his sleeve he breathed in, surprised to find himself at a loss for words and at the same time the sheer need to say something tangled up his tongue within his mouth.

Before he could figure himself out however a plume of fog unnatural in it's density and growing solidity despite the shining rays of dawn sun appeared beside them, half pierced through with the warmth of light.

"Hinata." Neji began, and froze as much as a half formed ghostly shape could freeze. His translucent gaze slid from her hand to Sasuke and back causing Hinata to snatch back her palm as though she had touched fire.

"Neji-nii." She began softly, smoothing her kimono as she moved to stand stiffly. "What is the matter?"

"The children wander in the direction of the kitchen." He began uncertainly, already drifting into nothingness once more. "I suggest one of you make an attempt to stop them from being found out. If I recall..." He sighed, the rest coming out tired. "... the servants rise with the sun at the Hyuuga Compound." And without another word of goodbye he disappeared.

"Oh no." Hinata turned, rubbing at her legs absently to try to get feeling back into the numb limbs. "I told them to stay in my room."

"Yes well, I do recall saying they were a pain." Sasuke muttered, following as she started a rapid climb back down to her bedroom window. "You always seemed opposed to the fact."

"Opposed?" Hinata managed a little shakily, surprised to be both amused by his tone and also bickering at once. "You carried Sasu upside down from the city center-"

"He was fine."

"He looked green."

Kicking the window frame open absently she slid into the room, move smoothly towards the door at the sight of the empty futon rumpled and abandoned along with the ajar door leading to the corridor.

Black as her shadow and distinctly less passive Sasuke grumbled. "He didn't even vomit, Sasu was fine."

"Vomiting is entirely too low a bar to set for fine," Hinata scolded gently, peering one way and then the other down the hall, the veins along her eyes hardening as her Byakugan studied the compound. "I'm leaving you with them today until after I see Tsunade-sama at the hospital, I'm counting on you to please not make him throw up."

"Noted." He relented finally as she sighed and began carefully maneuvering the corridors. He watched as she gazed levelly rather low on the ground, inspecting doorways as they passed as though the information she sought was on the floor.

It only occurred to him as they turned a corner that she was peering into rooms and purposefully avoiding looking up. She was avoiding look at people.

"How inappropriate exactly, is what you're doing?" He finally allowed himself the whisper as she paused before a corner to check for a clear path towards the kitchens.

Stiffening visibly, she glanced back at him, mouth parted slightly. "W...what?"

"Can you see through people's clothes?" He cocked his head then, amused to watch her face flood with blood, her Byakugan dying away abruptly considering her intent stare had in that moment been fixated on him.

"N-no! No why would you say that? I- I look at, the chakra network only I just-" Floundering in hissing whispers she gasped as he peered down the hall around her, and judging it safe enough dragged her through by the elbow.

"All right, don't implode. I was just wondering."

"Please, don't ask me such things." Hinata gasped, face buried in her hands despite his grip on her elbow as he pulled her along. "Please, please."

"Tch. You really-" Sasuke began and froze.

A door creaked behind them and quick as the flick of a knife Hinata's byakugan was back in action, Sasuke's sharingan glowing faintly red through his dark lashes.

Quiet as a poisoned projectile Hinata let out one whispered word.

"Gaara."

She had known, of course she had known that he and the Uchiha as a whole were a clan whose speed was rarely rivaled. Even Lee, who trained specifically to intensify his ability to slice through air had found Sasuke Uchiha a surprising challenge and so when he abruptly and without a word picked her up off the ground and essentially disappeared she should not have been surprised.

Still, it took most of her skills and self control not to scream.

They arrived as abruptly as they had left in the foyer which was one part of the Hyuuga house that Sasuke recognized. Arms full of the Hyuuga eldest he turned slowly, contemplating the next move towards the kitchens only to startle at the pinching grip of Hinata's hands on his arm. "Incoming, two maids from the left. Kitchen is to the right- go!"

Smirking now, despite the growing panic in his belly he disappeared, reappearing down the right hand hall which was tiled and lined with windows gazing out to the back gardens green with growing vegetables and herbs fragrant enough to entice him to sniff the air.

"Ugh." Hinata whispered as he lowered her to the floor easily. "How do you not get dizzy doing that?"

"Same way you don't blush every time you use that Byakugan of yours." He replied easily, pushing through the cloth curtain dividing the hall from the kitchen where a clatter of metal bowls echoed like a gong to alert the entirety of the household that something was amiss.

Entering the place the two adults flinched. On the counter, having pushed a chair against it to reach Hina stood on tiptoes. She reached up to a shelf below the high rectangular windows where Hinata knew a tin of raisins was still tucked, as it always had been since she could remember by the kind cook who doted on her since she was young.

Sideways and clearly having had a series of metal bowls and containers on it's surface was another shelf she had used to keep herself from falling into the sink. Right below her, wound tight as a drum skin Sasu winced, looking at the mess they had created in their adventure for some morning raisins.

"Go and I'll do damage control." Hinata whispered quickly finally breaking the silence with the logic of a shinobi at work. Beside her Sasuke moved without having to be told twice, scooping up a pliable and sheepish Hina and with one stern look at Sasu he stretched out his hand.

"Come with me nicely and I won't grab you by the ankle, runt."

Eyes as stern as his elder version Sasu glared, pouting feebly before walking into Sasuke's embrace. "Fine."

Unable to contain the grin that flashed over her face Hinata stiffened at the sound of a voice behind her calling out.

"Hello?"

There was Gaara again, coming to investigate the chaotic sound that had come from the kitchens so early in the morning.

Before Hinata could reply Sasuke disappeared like a bit of summer cotton caught on a breeze, taking the two trouble making children with him out the window.

Turning abruptly, Hinata let out a relieved sigh as Gaara entered the kitchen, studying the mess and her genuine expression of relief before allowing himself a small smile of his own.

"Hinata-sama... is everything okay?"

Hinata blinked, contemplating. "I think...maybe."

Somehow, she was not bothered by his puzzled expression.

* * *

"Breakfast. Go wash your hands." Sasuke ordered as soon as they entered the house. Sliding like she was using a fireman pole Hina tumbled from his shoulders and Sasu frowned slightly, chafing at the order but mostly consenting as Hina skipped towards the bathroom.

By contrast to the night before the house flared with light from windows which had for many months been shuttered by the curtains against the brightness of the sun. Hinata had opened them on more than one occasion in the past week and with the weekend rolling in there was no sign of workers to worry him from peering into the soon to be chaotic mess that was his house.

Stretching absently he moved into the kitchen, pulling out dishes from the fridge as he listened to the kids giggling in the bathroom.

Where the house had been cold and silent the night before it now yawned and woke. The smell of the warming soup on the stove and the clatter of dishes as he gathered breakfast together for the squealing creatures likely ruining his bathroom was a welcome reprieve he was still grudgingly admitting he had missed.

Absently he washed emptied dishes, counting in his head how many more meals were left in the fridge before he would have to ask Hinata for help in that department again.

"I wanna play outside!" Sasu's voice called from the top of the stairs. At the same time the rush of water that said the sink was still in use warred with his demand. Sasuke grumbled mildly.

"No."

"But I want to!"

"You haven't had breakfast."

"But I want to see if there's honey in the-"

"Sasu, I said no! Hina is probably starving anyway." Sasuke shouted without looking, pouring miso into the bowls Hinata had taken to using for the kids. "Eat first, you can go in the yard later." After a pause where he listened to the obstinate silence he added. "Hina! That's enough! Come down here!"

"I- I'm... Coming!"

Tumbling childish steps, the giggle of the kids bickering good naturedly about something hummed through the house and placing the kid's dishes on the table he turned, stiffening at the sound of a new voice to join the fray.

"You know, family life suits you."

 _No._

 _It can't be._

It seemed strange within his mind to find that the one thing that was most unbelievable in his life considering his current predicament was this. Not the gods wagering on his life and heart, or the tangle they had made of his future with Hinata's or the ghost of a fallen comrade that now followed him around. No, all these things he could take in stride. He had after all seen many terrible and wonderful things through the years.

But this, this voice behind him he could not believe. He dared not.

Softly, layered with surprise and joy Sasu's gasp punctuated the silence, shouting what Sasuke's heart struggled to put to words.

"Big Brother!"

Turning he stared at the tall, albeit see through frame of his brother. He smiled kindly at him before turning to the little Sasu beaming in the doorway.

"Hello, Sasuke."

* * *

"What a clatter you were making this morning, Sister." Hanabi was all too keen to discuss what she assumed was a clumsy mistake on Hinata's part. She was also more interested in it because when the servants had arrived to investigate moments later they had found the Lord Kazekage and Lady Hinata smiling shyly at each other in the brightness of the kitchen in the early morning before anyone else was up.

Somehow this bit of information had found its way into Hanabi's hands. And although Hinata had no proof of it she could see the knowledge sparking like firecrackers in her sisters eyes.

"I must admit I was being rather loud." Hinata admitted easily. "I'm afraid I gave the old cook a fright."

"Mhm." Hanabi hummed as she sipped her tea, largely ignoring the plate before her steaming with warm rice and tiny fried fish in a savory sweet sauce. "Gaara-sama too I hear."

"I was already up." Gaara replied easily, stirring the rice in his bowl with eyes carefully focused on his meal. "It was no inconvenience."

The only silent party to their breaking fast was Hiashi who studied them all past laced fingers, uncharacteristically stoic. Hanabi, accustomed to his reproving eye was unfazed but Hinata fidgeted beneath his stare, picking up bits of breakfast only to put them back down in her anxiety.

"H...how was your sleep, Father? Are you rested?" She dared finally, lifting her gaze to her elder warily before plopping a mouthful of rice in her mouth.

Hiashi seemed to stir at the sound of her voice and the touch of her eyes upon his face, picking up his tea cup with a smoothness practiced from endless formal dinners through the years.

"I must admit I was thinking long after the sunset about some issues I need to resolve today. I am perhaps a little weary."

"Oh." Hinata sat up then at the admitted weakness, an unusual thing for her father. She could probably count on one hand the times he had admitted to being tired. "Is there anything I can help with? I do not think I have-" She paused, realizing the mistake that she was about to make with Gaara's eyes suddenly on her, listening intently to what he assumed was going to be the offer of her day. She could see how that conversation would go.

"I...I may have some time later in the afternoon or evening to help with anything." She reassessed, ignoring Hanabi's quirked brow and the smirk she hid behind a sip of tea. "Would you like me to take anything from your schedule, Father? I would love to help."

"No, Daughter, thank you." Hiashi murmured, pushing up from his place at the table slowly. "These are all things I must deal with myself, I am afraid. Please, continue your breakfast. Kazekage-sama, I hope that I can join you for the noonday meal. Were you and my Daughters not planning to train this late morning? I thought I recalled such plans being discussed at dinner."

Hinata blinked, trying to remember and in her hurry she slammed into the memory of her voice denying Sasuke a chance to train with them. Awkward and pained they had listened to her floundering silence until he had rescued her from the mistake. Flushing at the memory she cleared her throat.

"Ah... I'm... I'm afraid I have to check. I have an outstanding appointment I need to reschedule with Tsunade-sama, among other things to do today but, before dinner I do think I may be free."

Gaara frowned, the disappointment lingering on his shoulders. "Oh. Well, perhaps we can wait until then-"

"We can go." Hanabi put in suddenly, surprising Hinata as well as Gaara. She flashed a smile. "I could use a good spar and regardless, in the afternoon I would rather you and Hinata help me pick out flowers from the gardens for the Crane Folding Party. She tells me you have a thumb greener than even her own, Gaara-sama."

Gaara started, even as Hinata repressed a roll of her eyes. "Gaara-kun probably has things he would rather be doing other than-" she began slowly, only to stop in surprise as he nodded.

"I would love that. I will get ready after breakfast, yes?"

"Perfect." Hanabi waited until his attention turned to wishing Hiashi a good day before she winked at her sister, who felt her shoulders droop warily.

A wink from Hanabi likely meant she owed her something.

* * *

Avoiding the foyer of the house until Gaara and Hanabi disappeared from her enhanced vision felt distinctly wrong. It twisted her gut within her and made her chew the inside of her cheek, but it did not encourage her to go downstairs to wish them well on their day.

Gaara's eyes would linger long on her face. His gentle open posture would lean forward in a way that said he might have wanted to touch, perhaps a finger to the tendrils of her dark hair, or a thumb to the curve of her cheek.

Either way, she would have frozen in his presence, thinking about the implications of her reaching back, allowing the caress. Also her mind flooded with the implications of life for herself, Sasuke, Sasu and Hina if she jumped back as her body desired.

Glum again, despite the brief flare of calm that had come over her at Sasuke's presence she gathered her bag for the day. Training clothes in case something happened, or she had the chance to spar with Sasuke in the afternoon, as well as her notebook filled with a handful of wild blooms she thought perhaps Hanabi would be interested in having for the Crane Folding Party. Though their gardens were expansive and beautiful there was not enough growing there to provide for both the wedding and the party so close together. They would have to outsource and Hinata had a place in mind.

Thoughts of a picnic, perhaps even a swim in the pond near the wild flowers that bloomed rampant and strong among the hazel nut trees of an abandoned orchard far on the outskirts of the village agricultural sector made her sigh with longing. It had been a long time since she had thought of the pond, of the silvery fish that nibbled at her ankles as a child when she had first gone there and the water lilies that bloomed wide and beautiful on the surface of the water.

Sasu and Hina would love the place, it would give them a chance to stretch their legs so often jailed inside a house or room.

A knock on her door drew her gaze, and she frowned slightly, shuffling her bag on her shoulder as she peered around her door.

Hiashi stood in the hall with his hands folded neatly behind him, his kind eyes searching her face even before she had opened the door fully. Startled by the seriousness of his expression Hinata let out a long breath. "Father. Is everything all right?"

"Yes." Hiashi nodded, forcing a smile that did not meet his eyes. "I came to ask if you were feeling any better, since yesterday you took your leave early."

"Oh." Hinata cleared her throat as she remembered yet again something else she had done that would now after so many uses seem like a growing fault in her character. "I'm very sorry father. I was tired, and I think perhaps my training-"

"Yes." Hiashi interrupted, frowning slightly so that wrinkles slid along his forehead. "You have been working rather hard, and when you aren't working hard you are often ill. I have seen so very little of you, Hinata. Usually I did not need to tell you when I expected you in my office to assist with the paperwork. Have you been avoiding our lessons?"

Stunned by the mild mannered accusation Hinata felt her shoulders tighten around herself and worked through a breath to straighten her spine. "Oh Father, no. Not at all. I am so very sorry..."

"We discussed the possibility of the title still being undecided, of the headship perhaps being better handled in your hands and since then..." Hiashi waved a hand. "Since then..."

Pressing a hand to her brow Hinata mused that all her lying about having headaches was proving to be a self fulfilling prophecy.

"Father. I... I thought that the council, the elders, even your own mind were set on Hanabi. She is the stronger candidate by far, and has been groomed for it since birth." Hinata whispered softly, careful to keep any whining from her voice even if in her mind the irritation bloomed like a blood stain.

"As have you." Hiashi responded. "It is not as simple as it once was. The world is different, peace prevails."

"Father."

"Suna is a world trimmed with unreachable terrain and people still living in the past decades of war. The Lord Kazekage has been discussing with me, in your absence the difficulties he faces in his lands. It is no small thing that he has taken the time to be here and if there was the possibility of a misunderstanding before it is there no longer. I know, and I believe you know his intentions in being here, Daughter."

Lips parted in awe, Hinata stared at her father, tongue useless in her mouth with a lack of words with which to reply.

"I do not know that you are made for the darkness that still resides in Suna. Battles must still be fought, wars won. You have served your people. If you accept Gaara-sama's proposal when it comes... that responsibility will come with his hand."

Hinata blinked slowly, feeling the tightening fist in her gut as her father surveyed her.

"You do not think...that I could handle the job that marrying the Kazekage entails?" She blinked slowly, thinking not of the soft faced, tender Gaara but of a bold shining smile, the glowing wild mane of blonde and the flash of sky blue eyes that had ripped her heart out of her chest.

Hiashi frowned, watching as tears condensed in soft dewy pearls at the corners of her daughters vision.

"Oh, my Daughter. It is not that-"

Bowing low to hide her face behind her dark hair Hinata breathed in deeply. "Father. I... apologize for the...for my inability to uphold the strength of our family."

"Hinata-"

"Please...please know that I... I cannot imagine that if I cannot sustain a marriage to someone as the Kazekage that I would be capable of leading our clan. I stand firmly in support of my sister, the heiress and rightful owner of such a title."

"Hinata Hyuuga, stop and-"

"I'm so very sorry." Holding back the flood of tears that choked her Hinata pushed past him into the hall, walking rapidly away despite the lack of dismissal even as her father sighed deeply and shook his head.

Through the chaos of the village streets Hinata held herself tightly together. A compact little shape with a rainstorm within her. Face turned downwards so that eye contact was minimal she cruised through the familiar streets and the loud banter of the village in full weekend fervor.

Ice cream parlors were beginning to open up their doors, coffee and tea scents wafting through the spring time warmth. The smell of baked goods from the bakery down the street of the hospital always made her think of cinnamon rolls but nothing could urge her to stop her slow determined path towards the hospital doors.

Lined on either side with trees that glowed with twinkle lights in the darkness of night and flared green and full in the brightness of day Hinata entered the coolness of the hospital and froze.

With the thoughts of her failure and humiliation still at the surface of her mind it took one look at Ino to make her stomach sink to the bottom of her shoes.

"Uh oh."

"Oh, look at who the cat dragged in." The blonde began slowly, crossing her arms in what Hinata recognized as one of her battle stances.

"Ino-chan,"

"Oh don't _Ino-chan_ me, missy." Ino began, rolling her blue eyes as she approached. "I know what went down at that date and I am very annoyed with you."

"Oh." Hinata breathed, leaning back a bit as the taller blonde encroached on her personal space. "I'm s-sorry. I realize it must seem as though I was terribly rude, I can apologize to-"

"What?" Ino snapped back as though scalded. "No silly, good thing you walked out on that crazy lunatic! Asking about you getting fat was one of the few things I thought for sure he would know not to discuss! I was wrong! Lord, I nearly beat him senseless when he showed up at my house all confused by your sudden departure. Only took a moment for me to put two and two together. Why didn't you call me? It must have been awful!"

Hinata stared at her friend, flooded suddenly by a deep affection for the beautiful blonde before her so that she reached out and very gently drew her into a hug.

Ino froze, surprised by the gentle squeeze Hinata offered around her neck and patting her back gently she sighed. "Oh Hinata. You never learn. We're on your side, silly."

"S-sorry." Hinata replied wetly, sniffing a moment as she pulled back. "I... I haven't had a great day and I just thought..." she drifted off, rummaging inside her bag for a packet of tissues.

"You thought I was out to get you for insulting Fu." Ino laughed, patting her head lightly. "No way, dear. No way."

"Hinata!" Sakura's voice drew the two girls attention to her from the service desk where she was leaning heavily, face flushed and round belly seeming exponentially bigger than just a few days ago. Hinata blinked rapidly at her for a moment as she attempted to gather her lab coat around her middle only to give up the futile attempt with a grumbled sigh.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura asked, a little out of breath as she approached, tapping a long fingernail on the clipboard in her hand. "Didn't you get the message Tsunade-sama sent to your house?"

Hinata sighed, shaking her head slightly. "No, am I to meet her elsewhere? I can-"

"No, she had to cancel your appointment today, I'm sorry." Sakura frowned slightly. "Something urgent came up, she said. But I'm sure she will finish off your orientation as soon as possible. Do you want me to tell her when you're free next?"

For a moment the concept of time was a terrible thing and Hinata floundered, trying to think of her calendar and what it looked like. To her surprise all she could see in her mind were tiny white boxes all labelled Sasuke, Sasu and Hina with the very bottom being a blazing red containing a single frantic word: wedding.

"Um..." Hinata allowed herself sheepishly, resisting the urge to press her fingers together as had been habit for so many years. "I am actually not sure. You see the wedding is coming up and-"

"Oh yeah." Sakura nodded, and then grinned. "Naruto tells me Gaara is staying at your house until then."

Ino's head whipped like it had been kicked towards the brunette. "What?"

"Oh." Hinata shook her head, recalling the very recent conversation she had just had with her father. "Oh it's nothing, he just needed somewhere to stay and we have had such good communication with Suna lately on behalf of Konoha-"

"Thanks to you." Ino poked her shoulder. "And that pretty face of yours. Oh!" she sucked in a breath. "Is he... is he interested do you think-?"

"No." Hinata stepped back rapidly, rubbing her hands on her sides to dispel the sweatiness building there. "No, I don't think so. I... I should go, however. If Tsunade-sama is busy, I need to-"

"Hold on, join us for tea!" Ino called, even as Hinata stepped through the hospital double doors. "Hinata!"

"Sorry!" Before either of her friends could stop her Hinata turned and rushed down the street, almost as if she was fleeing rather than leaving.

Letting out a grumbling sigh, Ino shook her head. "Some things never change."

"Hm." Sakura hummed sadly, thinking about the crimson rise of nerves that would plague Hinata at the mention of a certain special someone. "I hope things change. Things need to change, or they fester."

"Don't get cryptic with me." Ino rolled her eyes. "I'm not interested. Are you meeting your hubby for lunch? Please, let's do something other than ramen."

"I actually want ramen, thank you very much." Sakura growled, defensive of being forced to eat something other than the one thing the baby seemed to crave all the time.

"But no, we're not. He said he was going to stay in to work today. Sasuke didn't show up again." Sakura frowned, discarding the clipboard in her hands as she removed her lab coat. "He's trying to catch up on a bunch of stuff he's been neglecting."

"What's with that guy?" Ino frowned, following her friend out into the warming day. "Seems like he's always missing from what you tell me."

"Lately." Sakura admitted softly, picturing in her mind her husband's face upon his return from a short training run. It had been a long time since Naruto's expression had been so clouded. When she had asked what was wrong he had admitted he could not talk about it. Sakura wasn't thick however and she knew he had headed towards the grounds closest to Sasuke's house. Whatever had happened, it surely wasn't sweetening Naruto to his flaky best friend.

"Eventually they'll just beat each other senseless and that will be that." Ino shrugged, looping her arm through Sakura's. "Isn't that how they resolve things."

"I hope not." Sakura grumbled. "Naruto mentioned he was going to go see him today. I do not have time for that. It took me forever to put them back together last time."

* * *

"What... are you doing here?" Sasuke managed after a long endless stare as his brother crouched to study the two kids who blinked owlishly at him, one beaming and Hina cautiously surveying the situation from behind Sasu's shoulder.

"Well, there's some gods that are up to no good, I believe. But you know all about that." Itachi smiled, rising from his crouch to study his brother.

A minute shift in Sasuke's stance, just the barest leaning forward towards his Nii-san made Itachi's smiling mouth somehow without moving turn sad.

"Aw, Little Brother. Surely the little Hyuuga did the same thing when she saw her cousin the first time. You must remember." And he blew through his fingers, causing the digits to disintegrate like smoke before gathering back into shape.

Memory served to draw up the image of Hinata throwing herself through Neji's intangible arms, her loss doubly felt as she stumbled to a stop on the other side of him.

Drawing on the annoyance that had served him so well all his growing up years Sasuke swallowed and forced a frown on his face. "What do you mean?"

Smiling still Itachi moved as though to sit at the third spot at the kitchen table. "Come, come young ones. Aren't you hungry? That miso will be chilled."

Happy for the first time in days Sasu's grin could hardly be contained, scrambling like a kitten with too big paws onto his chair where his breakfast awaited.

"Why would they send you?" Sasuke continued despite Itachi's attention being focused on the two little ones who eyed him curiously while they slurped up soup and rice balls.

Wary at the thought of what it would do to Hinata Sasuke let out a long breath. "Where is Neji?"

"I've no idea, although I don't recall them suggesting I was a replacement, more of a-"

"Unwelcome addition." Neji suggested suddenly, poofing into existence at the entrance of the kitchen, arms crossed and frown furrowed.

"Am I unwelcome?" Itachi sounded both surprised and nonplussed. "Pity."

"You are under Susa's orders and I trust that blue snob about as far as I could throw him." Neji retorted with distaste. "And I can't pick anything up so,"

"Yes. I get the implications." Itachi replied amiably, crossing his legs as he leaned back in the chair. "What makes you think one god is better than the other? Lady Ama agreed to the wager just as he did. She could have not and left these poor things were they belonged." He said simply, waving a hand at the children busily creating a mess as they ate.

Neji frowned. "Lady Ama hopes for a better outcome for them, certainly better than that of the Lord Susa."

"Hm." Itachi allowed, watching with interest the silent sponge-like way Sasuke was considering everything. "Interesting thought."

"Susa hopes our hearts break." Sasuke finally whispered, eyeing his brother for confirmation. Itachi bit his lip and did not reply. "Hm."

At the table the kids pushed out from the chairs, happy to be ignored by the boring adults discussing things around them. As though it were normal they passed through Neji's frame, drawing a frown from his face as they hurtled into the living room.

"Well, for whatever reason the gods have decided that I too will join your little party." Itachi mused, glancing at Sasu and Hina who were taking endless rows of books from Sasuke's shelves to build towers.

"It does appear to need some... refreshing."

"I have a lot of Hyuugas on my plate right now." Sasuke grumbled, storming after the kids to put the books Sasu was playing with back on the shelf. Beside him Hina happily passed him her own. "There's not a lot to be done about their..." He glared at Neji openly. "..staleness."

"Staleness?" Neji snapped, bristling like a cat doused with water. "What do you-?"

"You're dead." Sasuke snapped, shoving through him just to annoy him further. "You can't argue with me about being stale. You're practically the definition."

Neji drew in a breath at the silence, clearly preparing himself for a tirade only to be stopped by the abrupt and unwelcome banging on Sasuke's door.

"Sasuke?" Naruto's muffled voice called through the wood. "Who the hell are you talking to in there?"

From the two children round saucer eyes offered worry and fear. So far any visitors or people not of the nebulous ghost kind or Hinata and Sasuke themselves were to be feared.

Judging from the pale startled look on Sasuke's face the trend was to continue.

"Shit."

"Children present." Itachi scolded, pressing a hand to Sasu's little ears that tickled like the whisper of a breeze through his hair, drawing a soft chuckle from the child.

"Sasu, Hina." Sasuke hissed, ignoring his brother blatantly. "Upstairs, quickly. Quietly."

"Sasuke!" A bang on the door made the entire side of the house jump as though startled and Sasuke growled low, storming to the kitchen to rummage in the bread box Hinata had stuffed full of things on her last cooking binge. Finding a bag full of sweet sticky treats he grabbed Sasu by the arm and practically threw him up the first three steps with the bag. "Now, scram."

"You, keep them quiet for a change. Do something useful, perhaps." Sasuke snapped at Neji who bristled like a disgruntled hen despite the lack of angel wings at his back. Another bang through the house rattled the frames on the walls by the door.

"You better answer this door before I knock it down, Sasuke Uchiha or I'm-"

"And me?" Itachi poofed out of existence and reappeared by the door. "Shall I let him in?"

"For the love of-" Sasuke hissed, shooing him away. "Disappear. Do it now."

Before the blonde on the other side did in fact knock the door down he flung it open.

Naruto did not bother being invited in. He stormed past, right into the living room, knocking over a tower that Sasuke thought Hina had built with a clatter that the Hokage clearly ignored. It took only a moment for Sasuke to realize he was in a real state and arms crossed he leaned against the doorframe.

"Come to inspect my house? Doesn't the hokage have better things to do?"

"You were supposed to be at work hours ago." Naruto snapped, hands on his waist and neck a visible trunk of tense muscles as he clenched his jaw. "I sure as hell have a lot of things to do considering you've practically disappeared. You know you can ask for vacation time right? What the hell have you been doing?"

The scrolls Sasuke had been systematically searching for mention of time travel were spread throughout the house, covering on occasion discarded dishes the children had left behind. Wincing at the sight of Hinata's pink apron still hanging on the back of the chair he shrugged. "I've been busy. Sorry."

"Sorry?" Naruto cocked his head, blue eyes sharpening to laser beams. "Sorry? You haven't been busy, you've been..." He paused, eyes lighting on the same apron Sasuke had been purposefully not looking at.

"What is that?"

Behind him Sasuke could feel the spring sun on his back from the open door, warming his shoulders and back. Similarly but less pleasantly his stomach burned with anxiety as Naruto walked to the chair and lifted up the apron by the neck ties, noting the ruffles at the end.

"Why is there a pink apron in your house?"

"You know," Sasuke muttered, as annoyed as he could possibly make himself sound. "I'm a little sick of you just walking into my life and assuming things. Just get out."

Unimpressed and visibly unshaken Naruto threw the apron at his chest where it smacked before landing on the ground. "Is that Hinata's?"

It occured to Sasuke, as it had been occurring to him since he was first teamed up with the blonde that calling him idiot was hardly fair. Naruto was many things. Awkward, short sighted, obstinate, indelicate but stupid? Stupid he was not.

And how Sasuke suddenly wished he was.

White noise hissed in his head as Naruto glared him down, jaw set and unimpressed as he waited. Options did not offer themselves to be said as excuses, instead he swallowed and adjusted himself vaguely where he leaned his shoulder on the doorframe. "So what if it is?"

It was clearly not what Naruto had expected him to say. Moving as though he had been shoved at the shoulder the Hokage blinked, jaw wide. "What? Are you kidding me right now?"

"I don't know what you're implying but-"

"Implying!?" Naruto finally roared, throwing his hands in the air. "I'm not _implying_ anything! You're cheating on your fiance with her sister!? With Hinata!? What in the hell is wrong with you?"

Of course, and because there was literally no fairness in the world, it was this moment which Hinata chose to appear at Sasuke's steps, hidden by his broad back and startled to stillness by the sound of Naruto's voice echoing out of the house.

Glancing back minutely as Naruto turned to storm at his living room, Sasuke did the only thing he could think of- and shoved her one handed into the bushes.

The soft "eep!" of surprise was muffled by the rustling of the foliage and Naruto's ranting as he paced Sasuke's living room.

"This is despicable- even for you and that's saying something considering that very bad stint you had as a teenager, damnit!"

Suddenly very aware of what they were discussing and who was listening Sasuke felt heat flare along his neck, dangerously molten it seared his ears and to his growing terror began to creep forward onto his face.

"Are you done yet? I'd like to get on with my day." He snapped finally, stepping away from the front door to wave Naruto through. "I have better things to do than listen to you insult me all day long."

"Insult you?" Naruto growled, prowling forward to shove himself dangerously close. For the first time in the conversation Sasuke paused, feeling the sudden electric flicker of his chakra through the house at the animosity displayed on Naruto's features. It was that determination that had nearly ended him more than once, and it was that same expression that had saved him. Suddenly being on the receiving end of it was not a pleasant experience and without his say so his chakra roared back, hackles rising in defense.

"You would be so lucky as to deserve Hinata's attention. She's a sweet girl, with a good head on her shoulders and I cannot imagine it was her idea to do this. It must be eating her up inside, doing something so awful to her sister."

"You have this all wrong." Sasuke hissed. "I would not do such a thing, so yes. I am insulted. Get out of my house."

"You're honestly denying to me right now that you two aren't-" Naruto paused, searching for a word that would do what he was about to say justice and finding none he settled on glaring.

Sasuke listened to the all consuming silence coming from the bush outside and urged himself to fume. "Hinata and I are not _doing_ anything."

Naruto's glare continued, unwavering. At that proximity Sasuke could see the flecks of dark blue among the icy coolness of his iris and as he drew back how they warmed with confusion.

Softly, stunned by the revelation the blonde stared, "...But you want to."

A sharp lethal sting ripped through Sasuke's chest, at the same time that his face finally flooded completely with blood and furiously he grunted.

"I've had enough of you." Grabbing the Hokage by the shirt roughly Sasuke tossed him unceremoniously outside. Lithe as a cat Naruto stumbled a step before righting himself easily on the unpaved road yet to be finished by the workers.

"Why won't you talk to me about this?" He yelled, straightening his clothes before throwing his hands in the air. "It's ridiculous! Let me help you! You need to break of that damn engagement if you care about her! How can you be happy this way-I cannot believe you right now."

"You were always rather surprised by my inability to live up to your damn expectations." Sasuke snapped, fingers tightening to claw shape at his side. The hiss and spit of chidori sizzled in the air and beside him the hydrangea bush meeped nervously.

Tiredly Naruto hung his head, shoulders drooping. "God, Sasuke. You are such a moron. _Fine_. Damn it. _Fine_! This is not okay! And this is not the end of it, do you hear me?"

"Whatever." Sasuke snarled, releasing chidori with a flick of his wrist before snatching up a throwing star out of nowhere instead. Without even bothering to look he tossed it, listening for the puff of Naruto's clone dissipating.

At his sudden disappearance Itachi materialized beside Hinata among the maze of the hydrangea bush, blinking big Uchiha eyes at her startled face.

"I'm Itachi. Hi."

Her little shriek and the abrupt explosion of her onto the steps had Sasuke sighing deeply. "Hinata." He grumbled, "Meet my older very _dead_ brother, Itachi."

Face pinched and red Hinata stared at the new Uchiha in her midst, panting slightly as she tried to compute the conversation she had just overheard and the obvious instance of another ghost in her life.

Smiling ruefully Itachi watched as Sasuke pulled the startled woman to her feet, raining twigs and leaves out of her hair and clothes as she straightened her kimono with slightly shaky fingers.

"Pleasure... pleasure to meet you." Hinata managed finally.

Grinning now Itachi flashed his gaze behind Sasuke where Neji stood with Hina and Sasu. "See. Maybe I _am_ welcome."

"Ugh." Neji sighed, pressing a finger delicately to his temple and rubbing slowly. "Uchihas."

* * *

They had run out of places to sit.

Neji had never taken much space, being nebulous in his construction Sasuke had taken to walking through him as it seemed to trigger an attack of the pouts. Besides standing in the way of things he had never taken up space on a chair or a couch or showed any signs of tiredness.

By comparison Itachi looked nearly alive if you ignored the fact that he was see through and when he stood in front of a window he nearly disappeared as the light flooded through his ghostly shape. Sitting comfortably on the couch with Sasu at his side and Hina plastered to him they took up all the space available on that piece of furniture.

Hinata and Sasuke had somehow ended up on the love seat, with Hinata precariously balanced at the edge as though she were unsure she was going to remain sitting.

"What are you doing here so early?" Sasuke inquired quietly as he tried to ignore Sasu discussing something animatedly with his brother. Itachi smiled calmly as he always had in his memories, eyes fixated and attention unable to be diverted in a way that both defrosted something icy in Sasuke's chest but also stung.

Hinata dragged her eyes from the tall angular young ghost that had appeared in her life, wondering at the fact that she could hardly be fazed by it at this point.

 _Perhaps I have gone mad._ She mused before letting out a breath as she studied Sasuke. "I... was going to meet with Tsunade-sama at the hospital but she cancelled her appointment with me at the last moment." Rubbing at the painful pinch between her brows she sighed. "Perhaps it's for the best."

Sasuke disagreed vehemently beside her although he did not say anything. His ears still sizzled beneath his hair and although neither of them had mentioned the conversation she had so clearly overheard it was bound to come up some time. Wincing at the thought he stood abruptly, feeling the heat of her thigh by his side like a solar flare.

"We can't stay here."

"I thought we were going to discuss a plan." Neji replied, sitting stiffly and clearly out of his comfort zone on the last chair left in the living room. Sasuke studied him for a moment before breaking out in a smirk at the thought that perhaps he had to concentrate so as to not sink through the material and to the floor.

"The Hokage could perhaps return." Hinata admitted softly, pushing herself up beside Sasuke. "And honestly..." she sighed, looking longingly out the window. "I think... we all need some air. Perhaps we will be more productive in the sunshine."

"Yes!" Sasu shouted suddenly at the insinuation of an outing. "I want to go out!"

"But-" Neji began, annoyed to silence by the look Sasuke flashed him. "Where would we go?" Sasuke asked finally, watching as Hinata slid her hands through Sasu's hair absently as she passed towards the kitchen.

"I know somewhere." Hinata offered gently, pulling dishes out of the fridge with the intention of gathering a picnic. "Shoes on, everyone."

Itachi followed her movements from his place on the couch, undisturbed by Sasu and Hina bouncing beside him with joy at the concept of a picnic outside.

Turning to his brother he smirked, catching the lingering look that Sasuke tore himself from before scolding the children off the furniture and towards the door.

Left alone in the living room the two ghosts watched as the living creatures readied themselves, loud and boisterous and although there was no laughter, there was a strange sort of peace in the chaos.

"This does not bode well." Neji whispered, glancing at Itachi with distaste. "What exactly does your master have in mind?"

Itachi moved his shoulders in what might have been a shrug, still gazing. "I am not privy to the minds of gods, Hyuuga, anymore than you are. I doubt much is really up to us anyway, I'm just glad to be here, to see it."

The lack of expression on Neji's face communicated how much he believed the statement and Itachi smiled. "It's okay. I'm not used to being trusted."

Neji turned away finally, in time to see Hinata grab onto Sasuke's elbow as she fit her shoes onto her feet in the melee at the front door.

"I wonder why."

* * *

 _ **I...uh.**_

 _ **So I love you guys, just remember that okay?  
And also, I'm sorry. I feel like this is almost right but the tone is a little off and my grasp of the plot is loose since it's been coy lately. Sorry for the extremely long wait. I'm also happy to see this moving forward!**_

 ** _Much love to you all,_**  
 ** _Inky_**


	11. Chapter 11

"Where are we going?" Sasuke asked. Before him Hinata walked with intention, her arms full of Sasu and her stride confident if a little frantic.

A few steps behind he frowned, absently patting Hina's back where she curled against his chest, breathing contently through the fabric of his shirt in the heat of the spring day.

"It's..." Hinata replied, without turning to look at him or slowing her rapid steps. "It...I... it's a pond of sorts."

"A pond." His reply was whispered and it ruffled Hina's bangs. Sleepily the girl looked up, blazing pale eyes crinkling at the corners as she smiled. Before he could do or say anything in reply to her contented expression she lifted one pudgy finger still dusted in powdered sugar from earlier in the day and tapped his nose, once, twice, three times.

"I've gone there many times before. I doubt anyone really knows about it." Hinata admitted, slowing just enough to let him catch up to her and turning to glance at him she paused, face wobbling between a laugh and surprise before settling on a smile.

"You...you have sugar on your nose."

A snort of amusement inching towards teasing left Sasu's mouth from where he watched, head tucked beneath Hinata's chin.

"Ugh." Sasuke grumbled, rubbing the stickiness off with the back of his hand.

Around them the bees buzzed and the dandelion puffs drifted in lazy swirls through the heatwaves rising from the scorched earth of the path they trod on. On either side the endless fields of the agricultural sector of Konoha gurgled with the rush of irrigation being diverted from rivers to keep the crops from wilting in the sudden unexpected sunshine.

All was serene, even sleepy in the honey yellow tint of a hot spring day. Nagging worries still lingered at the edges of his mind, but even they, sharp and angular as they were seemed dulled to a sort of stupor in the brightness of the beautiful day.

"We should be safe there." Hinata continued, while Sasuke fixed Hina with a look that was an attempt at disapproval but which she simply smiled at, unaffected. "...I always have felt safe there."

Lifting his eyes from the unapologetic toddler face before him Sasuke watched as Hinata ran a hand through Sasu's hair. Like a cat he closed his eyes, sighing comfortably against her body.

"Should you not be with the Kazekage and your sister, training or whatever excuse he made up to get you alone." He threw out. The accusation should have come out more rabid, if he was honest he had meant to spit it out but even words had softened like butter beneath the spring heat and instead there was a softness to the question that made Hinata sigh.

"They did wish for me to join, but I..." She paused, thinking of her father and his worries about what it would mean for her to join the Kazekage as his wife in the far off land of Suna where the sand burned as hot as the sun and the war had yet to end.

Sensing something in her stilted tones Sasuke watched, mouth pressed into a thin line as he waited, hopeful for more.

Instead Sasu sat up, twining his fingers together as he wrapped his arms around Hinata's neck and in the close proximity his black eyes took over the world, wide and knowing and kind.

"You're sad." The statement of fact was said very firmly, leaving no room for arguments and Hinata felt herself smile despite herself.

Glittering in the dark of the Uchiha eyes like a smattering of stars was the same quiet patient concern that the elder Sasuke had studied her with in the morning where he had found her crying like a child.

Some things never changed, apparently.

"Not sad." Hinata corrected, lying badly through her teeth so that the older Sasuke looked away. "Just tired."

Still and watching the exchange with the same interest as Sasuke was listening Hina let out along shuddering sigh he felt through his collarbone.

"Have a nap." Sasu supplied, puzzled by this predicament. He blinked slowly as if to assess Hinata's reception of his solution.

"Perhaps I will later. Would you like to play a game?" She asked, shifting him slightly in her arms. Sasu perked up instantly, back ramrod straight. "Yes."

"All right." Clearing her throat of nerves she glanced back, startled to find Sasuke's eyes trained on her, dark brows furrowed as though he were trying to solve a complex puzzle in his mind.

"Um... Hey, Sasuke." She began, maneuvering Sasu in her arms over her shoulder and onto her back as she walked.

Before he could reply she took two, three steps backwards facing him, flashing him a smile that shone bright as the overwhelming spring sun, tightening her hold on Sasu now poised on her back.

"Beat you there!"

Sasu gasped in a breath, body coiling tight with anticipation as she spun on her heel and took off towards the trees, laughing as he let out a shriek of delight.

Stunned to stillness Sasuke stared as the duo disappeared, brain misfiring even as Hina sat up like a lightning bolt struck her in his arms.

"A race! A race!"

"Fast, fast!" Sasu's distant call echoed through the darkness of the trees and from his frozen place on the path Sasuke let out a long breath, stalled with Hinata's smile bright in his mind.

He had not seen that smile before, had never seen anything remotely as wild on her features, often so schooled to calmness and the kiss of the wind, the freshness of the warm spring day, with the restraints falling from her, the smile rang true, it glowed honest.

It was free.

From the swirling gold and black of the forest her voice called back, ringing loud and true as he had never heard it before. "You're losing!"

"Run, run!" Hina clasped his cheeks in her tiny pudgy hands, drawing his startled face to her shining pale eyes. "Run! Quick!"

His heart was already pounding much harder than it needed to, considering his stillness. Taking a breath he felt the corner of his mouth quirk to match Hina's anticipatory squeal of delight.

And then he ran.

* * *

"Ow."

Hanabi groaned mildly from her place flat on her back on the training ground dirt. She could feel the way the gravel bit into her spine, the way it stuck to trails of sweat along her neck and the back of her bare arms and the sting of it on a wound that she was fairly sure was oozing blood through the gritty mess of dirt.

Gaara's green gaze was full of concern, as deep as the lagoons in which she had learned to swim and just as complex. She squinted as he leaned over her, breathless at least.

It made her feel just the smallest bit better knowing that if she couldn't hold her own against a kazekage at least she could make him gasp for breath.

The thought, innocent in nature though it was made something feral and hot as a poker ram through her mind and set her nerves to burning. Bright as the sun above an image of Gaara's mouth parted over her collarbone, hair glistening red with sweat, eyes closed and voice strangled as he gasped her name branded itself across her gaze and she winced, flinging her hands over her face.

"Ugh! Damn it."

"Are you all right, Hanabi-sama. Perhaps I should not have-"

"Oh, shush." Hanabi snapped a little petulantly, stung by the fact he was worried she couldn't handle a little rough housing, and also desperate to have him not speak her name.

Or at all, for that matter.

Silence was best, thank you very much.

Gaara complied, lips twitching in a half smile before reaching down to offer her his hand. Hesitantly the Hyuuga peered at him through splayed fingers, annoyed by the tightened way he held his lips and what that meant.

"Are you laughing at me?"

"No!"

Snatching his hand to drag herself up she scoffed. "You're laughing!"

"I most certainly am not-"

Smirking now, Hanabi shook out her wrists pretending it wasn't the nerves, just stiffness. "It's all right. I'm far more rusty than I recall. My cousin would have killed me." She muttered, thinking for the first time in a while of the pale eyed shadow that had followed her and her sister from place to place for so long his death had been on par with removing a sun from the sky.

Training had been difficult, his voice in her head got her eyes to stinging with tears and with a knot in her throat she had found it easier to focus on other things. There were not many options for a daughter of the Hyuuga Main House and in the end, kimonos and marriage had taken up residence in her mind where before new techniques and training had been.

"You remind me of Temari, sometimes." Gaara admitted when her consternation was clearly more amused than real. Listening to the crunch of their steps on the gravel he grabbed at a water bottle hanging from the branches of the tree they had deposited their gear beneath and passed it to her.

"She's your older sister, yes?" Hanabi inquired, downing a mouthful of water as he dried his face with a towel.

"Yes."

"Blagh. I know plenty about older sisters." She mused, flopping onto the grass beneath the tree.

Pausing mid drink, Gaara cleared his throat, eyeing the shifting dark of the tree shadows pierced through with yellow bits of sun at his feet.

"You and your sister seem to get along well enough, no?"

Hanabi smiled wide and a little wicked despite the dazzle of her pretty face. "Yes, and no. I don't really blame her though." Waving at herself she shrugged. "I know I'm a lot to handle and besides my father she is the longest running tolerator of my nonsense."

Mouth pursing tightly again Gaara said nothing, until she smirked. "You know, it's okay for you to laugh."

"I'm..." He drifted, half hearted laugh leaving his lips as he rubbed his neck. "I'm very bad at-"

"Social things, yeah I'm getting that." Patting the ground beside her Hanabi shuffled over a bit. "But you're hoping to be my brother in law, no? You can relax, we're not at a formal dinner in front of my father. That's another kind of battle altogether."

"Oh." Sighing Gaara threw himself onto the ground, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "I have been so nervous every night."

Hanabi snorted, a sound she had to admit was less than lady like but giggling she watched as he opened one eye, a wry smile tainting his face as he studied her.

"You look nervous too." She mused. "It's terrible."

"It _is_ terrible. Is it truly so obvious that I-"

"Oh Gaara." Dropping the 'san' was easy, like they had been friends all along and just remembered. Hanabi shook her head, leaning her chin on her palm as she gazed at him. "I knew you were wanting my sister when Father told us about your letter requesting to stay at our house."

It happened faster than usual, due to the heat of the day and the fact he had been working hard to keep those 'rusty' Hyuuga hands from shutting down his chakra network all morning. Blood, pink and then blazing red flooded his face and with a hand pressed to his eyes to keep himself from seeing her expression he groaned.

"She...I...she knows then?"

"My sister is many things, but stupid is not one of them." Hanabi replied succinctly, infinitely amused by the matching sheen of red on his cheeks to his hair.

"Well, that explains many things." He sighed.

"Oh?" Hanabi cocked her head as she sat up. "Like?"

"Like how much she has been avoiding me since I arrived." There was no more humor in his tone, quietly he offered his humiliation like passing a note in class, without making a fuss.

Hanabi let her face slide from coy to the rare seriousness of a small frown, mouth pressed into a thin line as she thought.

"I love my sister, Gaara. I know her pretty well and I have to tell you, the thought of being pursued is likely the most terrifying thing she's ever faced, and considering what I hear she did during the War..." she drifted off, waiting until he finally looked at her.

"Ah." He allowed, a little glum despite himself. "I see."

"But." Hanabi continued after a breath, brightening as she smiled and pushed herself to her feet. "Lucky you, you have me."

Confusion flitted through Gaara's features for a moment, and when she reached down to help him up he hesitated.

"I'll help you." Hanabi winked, grabbing his palm to pull despite his hesitation. "I think we might make a good team, maybe."

Drawing in a long breath the Kazekage sighed, squeezing her smaller more delicate hand in his own. "Maybe."

"It'll be a cinch." Hanabi soothed. "What could possibly get in the way?"

* * *

Sasuke was in the way.

One moment Sasu and Hinata were winning the race. Air in their lungs, smelling of the sweet decomposition of the forest floor and the freshness of new growth setting their blood to pumping.

Ahead the world blinked with gold light and shadow, a shifting pattern like the sea tangled through with the trunks of trees and the chirping calls of the birds. Rushing, her feet set dandelion wisps to floating, scattering their confetti debris through buzzing insects hard at work among the sweet smelling honey suckle that grew among the moss.

Then, right before her eyes he appeared, too close to turn, too near to avoid and with a shriek that was half laugh half fear Sasu and Hinata slammed into the Uchiha and Hina hard.

"Oof!"

The children shrieked with delighted laughter as all four bodies fell in a heap, thankfully into the tangled green and purple of a carpet of flowers that had sprung to vivid life among the arches of a hazelwood forest around them.

For a moment the chaos was all there was, wild kicking toddler limbs, Hinata's laughter ringing bright, the smell of pollen and freshly crushed greenery and the push and pull of bodies tangled on the ground.

Flopped in a knot with them all Sasuke smirked, tossing a tiny chubby foot over his head to send Hina flying off and into the bright purples flowers that attacked them all with their fragrance.

Hinata lay on her side laughing, face half hidden by her hair beside him. "Can't win against you Uchiha, can I?" she sighed, stretching onto her back. "Even with one on my team."

"Tch." Sasuke replied, watching as she pushed her hair back from her face while Sasu crawled over her stomach to poke Hina's side as though to tickle. "You two cheated, what kind of head start was that?"

"I... I think we deserved a head start!" Hinata gasped, turning to look at him in disbelief. "You still beat us! Isn't that right, Sasu-kun? We deserve a head start."

"Yep." Sasu's giggling reply was hardly focused, his attention more taken by wriggling his fingers beneath Hina's arm which was causing her to gasp for breath between shrieks of laughter.

"Sasu!" Hinata scolded,the first time ever Sasuke had heard her sound stern. "Sasu, let her breathe!"

It occurred to him at the exact same time that it occurred to her that Sasu tickling Hina meant Hinata herself was ticklish. Blinking owlishly Sasuke flexed his fingers, surprised to feel them twitch with an unspoken desire.

Beside him Hinata's sharp eyes snapped to his hand, and then his face, widening before throwing herself to her feet.

"D-don't!"

"I didn't do anything." Sasuke defended, hands up in surrender.

"You were- but you-I saw- You were thinking-"

"I'm an Uchiha, I'm always thinking." Still defensive, Sasuke scooped up Hina from the ground, tossing her onto his shoulders to save her from Sasu's relentless attack. Tears of laughter rolled down her chubby cheeks but her arms still hugged his head fiercely in thanks.

"Aw." Sasu grumbled, hopping around his feet like a terrier. "I can't reach!"

"You'll get there." Hinata smiled, keeping a careful distance from Sasuke that made him roll his eyes. "The pond is just past those trees."

Holding Hinata's offered hand Sasu skipped over the flowers, tall indigo things that reached to his hips on his short frame. Following behind slowly Sasuke patted Hina's leg gently as she shuddered to catch her breath, wiping at the tears on her cheeks feebly.

"Oh." Sasu sighed ahead as he and Hinata reached the top of a small incline where the hazelnut trees ended and the wild manes of willows stretched high. "Wow."

The pond was more of a small lake. It glistened with sunlight as though covered in a thousand little sparkles where the water lilies did not blanket the surface with their soft green flowering blanket.

Around the edges willows shaded the banks and the pebbled beach where the water lapped lazy and calm. Beyond it the forest stretched cool and shaded, it's canopy a crystal green brightened by the hot spring sun.

The sweetness of lemon grass and black berries sizzling in the sun tangled with the breeze and besides the chirp of birds and the rustle of the leaves only quiet whispered.

From on his shoulders, arms tight around his head Hina sighed deeply. "Beautiful."

In a moment she was scrambling to get down, apologizing as she struggled to find places on his solid form to use as hand holds before dropping down to join Sasu in a mad sprint towards the water's edge.

Quietly the two adults watched as the children splashed in the shallows. Sasu, naturally more daring grabbed at a startled frog that leapt out of the way while Hina hid behind her sticky palms.

"Sorry." Hinata whispered softly beside him, so soft he wasn't sure if it was her or the wind who spoke. "He looked so concerned about me... And it's not fair, for him or Hina to be worried about us, here in this time." Wrapping her arms carefully around herself she sighed. "They will have plenty to be worried about for themselves, soon enough."

Tucking his hands into his pockets Sasuke did not look at her, focused instead on Hina squeaking out a protest as Sasu offered her the frog he had caught at the cost of getting completely soaked.

"Would it be better for them, to be here?"

Hinata turned sharply to look at him, mouth parted in surprise at a question she had wondered herself but never dared to voice. Slowly, tearing his gaze from the wide grin on Sasu's face Sasuke let himself meet her stare.

"But... we would-" Hinata hesitated, realizing as she studied him that he knew what that meant for himself.

"It's not that simple."

Closing his eyes Sasuke turned away at the sound of his brother's voice behind him. Itachi hugged the shadows, wary of the way light blasted through his being like kunai. Hinata waited, turning back to Sasuke as though looking for guidance.

Before Sasuke could say anything however Itachi continued.

"To have them vanish in your past is to change this future."

"Perhaps that's not a bad thing." Sasuke muttered, although he knew folly when he heard it, even coming out of his own mouth.

"Sasuke." Itachi's chiding tone was familiar and yet caused a shiver down his spine. "We cannot hope to know what they would suffer alone here, in a future we do not understand. No. Your survival depends on them going home."

One look over Sasuke's shoulder and Itachi smiled, eyes a little sad even as he faded away. Hinata watched until the remnant mist of his shape was truly gone before placing a hand on Sasuke's arm, the touch hesitant at first before becoming a firm thing.

"Sasuke...I-"

"We have taken it too easy." Sasuke interrupted without looking at her. "We need a plan."

Gathering herself took a few breaths of stillness, her gaze searching his face despite his determined glare towards the water's edge where the kids squeaked and shouted. Hina covered her face as Sasu fought the water for the rights to the frog who had got away.

"I have a plan."

Startled he turned to her, feeling her palm slide off his arm heavily to rub at her tired eyes.

"Do you?"

"Yes, of a sort." She sighed. "I can help you, with Hanabi. I know how."

Annoyance flashed through Sasuke's features like the bite of chidori before he turned away again. "And you?"

"Me?" Her half laugh had no humor. Thinking again about her father and his concern, the caution with which he had pointed out the hardships of Suna and the scorching sands had taken much of the wind from her wings. For some time she had considered her father someone who now knew her worth, and valued her strengths though they differed from her sister's. Perhaps she was wrong. Perhaps her inability to humiliate the Clan came with the end of the war, the lack of need for her to climb the ranks of shinobi now that peace prevailed. Given the opportunity he seemed to distrust her competence.

The sadness she had veiled with her exuberant games ebbed from her in her quietness and Sasuke stilled, watching as she kicked at some invisible thing with her shoe.

"My father has warned me that despite Gaara's forward request for my hand he is wary to give his consent."

This was not what Sasuke had anticipated. Taken aback he frowned, waiting and hoping that unlike Sasu who she had distracted with a smile and laughter she would give him more.

Cheeks reddening at the topic of conversation Hinata sighed, unable to do more than flick her eyes in his direction before looking away."He believes that because of the upheaval in Suna perhaps my joining the Kazekage would not be...beneficial, to the Clan or to the Kazekage."

"He's an idiot."

Hinata gaped, lips parted and words frozen on her tongue. Glancing at her Sasuke continued to scowl, arms crossed so as to hide the white knuckled tightness of his fists.

"My Father is not an-"

"You fought in a _war_."

"Yes, but I-"

"You got dragged to the _moon_."

"A stronger Kunoichi would not have so easily-"

" _Hinata._ " Turning finally to look at her, jaw set Sasuke shook his head, a small firm no. Her wide eyes absorbed his determined and unshakable rebuke. "If he thinks you can't handle the sandbox that is Sunagakure he's a _fool._ "

With a snap Hinata closed her mouth, blinking back the sting of tears rising at the corners of her eyes. Turning away impatiently Sasuke watched as Hina squeaked in surprise, stumbling backwards as the frog Sasu hunted in the water erupted at her face.

Softly, and a little wet with her strangled tears she breathed in, trying to calm herself in the face of his annoyed but firm faith in her abilities. "...Thank you."

His shrug was all nonchalance, even as his fists tightened some more.

"I...I'm glad that at the end we will be family." Wiping away at the tears threatening to drop from her lashes Hinata glanced at him nervously, smiling a bit feebly despite her best attempts to stay calm. "I hope you and Hanabi are happy."

Surprised, Sasuke turned to her again and froze, stunned for there in the vulnerability of her tears, among the thoughts of joy for her sister, through what appeared to be affection on her face, he saw it.

Hina, shy but desperate to please, excitable one moment and serene the next, bright eyed and honest, there she was. Beneath Hinata's placid, elegant veneer. Underneath the veil of mourning that seemed to cover her and keep everyone at bay.

There she was. A young, wild, passionate thing.

Hina.

It startled him, the fierceness with which he devoured this chimera of Hinatas before him. This childish free creature, tapered with the wisdom of the elder, daring to show her affection, wary of being scolded for the infraction.

 _I want to see more of her._

 _I want... more..._

Uncertainly, Hinata dried her tear stained hands on her sides, taking a deep breath to anchor herself.

"I do think you can be happy." She dared, allowing her eyes to flick at Sasuke again although she was too cowed by his intensity to hold the stare. "I do think so."

"I was never aiming for happy." He whispered, starting towards the children. They sat together in the shallows, attempting and failing to roll up their pant legs.

"Me neither." She reached out, startling herself as much as him when she gripped his wrist to stop him. It took effort, he could see the struggle with which she fixed her eyes on his face and he hoped that she could not see the same effort it took for him to not look away.

"Maybe we should, though Sasuke. Maybe we should aim for happiness, for joy. If...if the Hokage can- if _Naruto_ can have joy why... why can't I? Why can't _we_?"

Her hand burned, cool though it was, soft around his wrist it burned. He let the fire lick.

"Okay." His agreement was hardly a whisper, and he let himself gorge on the smile that broke over her face.

"First, I think you should show up for dinner unexpectedly today. If we pick some of the flowers in the hazelwood you can suggest them for the Crane Folding Party, she's been talking about it all week and I think your input would make her very happy." Chattering now, plans in motion and her fears soothed Hinata walked towards the kids again, leaving him behind to watch her be cast in the rays of sunlight through the trees with the sparkle of the lake before her.

Turning around she walked backwards, lifting a hand to block the sun from her eyes as she peered. "What do you think? I... I could use your help with Gaara."

His face twisted then into dislike he could not hide. "Not my area of expertise."

"Please." Cocking her head so that the darkness of her hair cascaded over her shoulder she looped her arms behind her back. "Please, Sasuke."

The word came out of his mouth tasting sour, despite the ease with which she twisted him to compliance.

"Fine."

He even made it sound true, impressing himself with his own lying.

* * *

The walk back home was an easy thing. With tummies full and their limbs exhausted from the heat of the day the children draped in limp spills across Sasuke and Hinata's backs, cheeks rosy and eyelids drooping.

Above them the sky blazed a brilliant orange and pink as the sun began to yawn and together they watched their shadows stretching out long before them.

Plans were discussed in calm collected conversation, as though they were organizing something else besides the seduction of two people, a party, a stake out, a prank.

With her hands full of flowers Hinata instructed him once home on how to arrange the bouquet for Hanabi. Guiding his fingers over the delicate stems, laughing at his hesitation when she had seen and heard of his ability to weave the silk tendrils of chakra in a battle with precision and expertise.

Patting his back encouragingly she had retreated with the sun, assuring him that the plan would work.

"Aim for joy." She had stated, holding the door to his home tightly in her hands, determination lining her face.

His smile had been an exercise in deceit and with a nod she had stepped out the door leaving him with the children and the two ghosts once more somehow still alone.

"Are you sure?" Neji asked as he tucked a very floppy Hina into bed beside Sasu's already snoring lump. In the dim light of the bedroom lamps Itachi and Neji looked real, as real as the children who had once more usurped Sasuke's bed.

Passing a hand through Hina's hair as she dozed Sasuke frowned, lifting his eyes to Neji distastefully. "About?"

"Leaving them here alone."

Beside him Itachi waved meekly. "I'm here."

"We hardly count." Neji grumbled, punching a fist through Itachi's foggy shape with ease. Itachi made a face. "That's very rude, you know."

"They will be sleeping." Sasuke retorted smoothly. "Just make sure one of you gets us if there's trouble. Hinata doesn't seem to think it's an issue."

Gathering the wrapped bouquet of purple blooms that he and Hinata had arranged a half dozen times before she left he stood, hesitating at the doorway with Hina's eyes fixed on him.

Something about her mouth, down turned even as her eyes drifted closed made him frown, made him hold on to the door frame hesitantly.

"I will be back." It was a whispered promise in the dark, and from his place on the chair in the corner Itachi watched, rubbing his thumb thoughtfully over his chin.

"Don't you worry so much, Little Brother. What could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

Sasuke was soon to realize that in fact there were a lot of things that could go wrong. More than he had ever considered possible, including and most surprising of all the arrival of Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi to dinner.

The nightmare began early in the night.

"Naruto." Gaara began in surprise as Hiashi stepped through the dining room door only to be followed in by the softly chattering voices of an exponentially bigger Sakura than Sasuke remembered and a loping lazy Kakashi at their backs.

Eyes widening minutely Sasuke took a deep breath and tried not to flicker out of sight and out of the country.

Before he could come up with an excuse that would render him unable to remain at the dinner despite having essentially invited himself to, maids began removing the panels facing the garden, bringing with them the delicate scented breeze of the cooling spring evening and the two Hyuuga sisters.

It helped him feel better that Hinata looked like she was frozen, as abruptly as though bespelled to stillness at the sight of so many more guests at their long low table than usual. So many more that the maids were busily rearranging cushions on the polished floor and with a lot of softly murmured chatter the Hokage and his wife, the past Hokage and the Kazekage were seated on one side.

"H-Hokage-sama," Hinata began, choking on the title as Naruto guided Sakura to her cushion and tenderly helped her onto her knees to sit at the traditional table.

Sad and guarded blue eyes lifted to Hinata, and opening his mouth to speak he stopped, cut off by Hanabi who smiled brightly, if a little nervously as she glanced towards her sister.

"I'm so very glad you could make it, Naruto-kun, Sakura-chan! I was not sure it would be possible, since the invitation was so last minute."

"I was unaware that they would be-" Sasuke began, cutting himself off at the feel of Hanabi pulling him to her side and lowering herself dragged him with down to a seat opposite his former teammates.

"I just wanted them here so I could formally invite them to the Crane Folding Party, since I have yet to receive that guest list from you, I just... wanted to be proactive." Hanabi explained, receiving the tea offered by the servant to her right without a glance.

Sasuke dragged in a long breath that shuddered in his chest, aware faintly of Hinata taking the seat next to him, and Hiashi to her right.

"What a very merry table we have today." Hiashi commented. "An honor on our house to have the Kazekage and Hokage both present. Thank you for coming."

"And a past hokage as well." Hanabi mused, waving a hand at Kakashi who winked conspiratorially. "Not to be forgotten."

"Certainly not." Hiashi amended.

Beneath the cover of Hinata's kimono her fingers snuck sideways along the cushions to Sasuke's thigh and for a moment all he could do was drag in a sharp breath to hold hostage. Carefully, as unstudied as possible he let his gaze slide towards her catching the very minute flicker of panic in her eyes.

Yes, yes indeed. Things were going wrong.

"Would have been nice if you could have put us on your guest list, te-" Naruto began, choking down the insult at the last moment at the look Sakura flashed in his direction.

"I've... been busy." He began slowly, aware of Hanabi's intent gaze on his face even as the servants began to deliver platters of food to slide carefully between all the guests.

"Yes." Naruto grunted darkly. "So busy."

Sakura's laugh rang with the nerves everyone was tasting in the air as clearly as the fragrant savory steam from the dinner before them. "Weddings are rather stressful, I remember ours was a nightmare until the day of." She cried, grabbing her tea to sip. "We're here now, so thank goodness for that."

"And him?" Sasuke finally grumbled eyeing Kakashi with distaste. "What is he doing here?"

Hanabi leaned forward to peer at his face from her place at his side. "I thought he was like your father figure."

The silence that engulfed the table was soon followed by strangled laughter from Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi himself. Behind his tea cup Gaara smirked broadly and Hanabi blanched, unaccustomed to having that kind of reaction on a table.

"I might faint." Hinata whispered.

"Maybe try not to." Sasuke whispered back. "Please."

"Perhaps a distant unruly uncle." Kakashi allowed, looking dreamily at the ceiling.

"The uncle you have to invite to family gatherings." Naruto waved at the table as an example.

"But that you avoid if you can." Sakura added, winking at Hanabi who had flushed slightly pink.

"Oh."

"Family is family." Gaara shrugged, coming to her rescue at the last moment. "I'm sure Uchiha-san more than most can appreciate every member of the family he has. It was a kind gesture, Hanabi-sama."

"Please." Hiashi cut in before anymore could be said, a little panic levelling his voice up an note or two. "Let us eat."

Sasuke watched out of the corner of his eye as Hinata sat still, fingers trembling with the chopsticks in her hand and plate empty while the others chattered and picked items from the trays before them. Coming slowly person to person the servers offered warm rice and sake, distracting the others just long enough for Sasuke to gather several items from the trays to place on Hinata's plate discreetly.

"Deep breaths."

"Hinata-sama?" Eyes flashing from Sasuke to Gaara Hinata forced on a smile, working hard to keep her chopsticks from clicking as she shook.

"Yes?"

"We were hoping to see you before dinner, did your errands run very late today?" The Kazekage asked softly. At the other end of the table Hanabi and Sakura bickered good naturedly about the merits of anniversaries and whether they were a nuisance or a blessing. Beside his wife Naruto glared at Sasuke decidedly, while the Uchiha ignored him flat out.

Trying desperately to tune out the animosity and chaos on her left Hinata cleared her throat. "Ah, yes. I'm so very sorry. I realize we were supposed to wander the gardens. I... I'm afraid I've been very-"

" _Busy_?" Naruto's voice called over Hanabi and Sakura still chattering. Finally Sasuke's eyes lifted, alighting on Naruto with enough force to draw his blue gaze from Hinata's startled face.

If before Sasuke's threatening chakra had been less than subtle with Gaara this time it was a silk ribbon on the breeze, sizzling with malintention that was wrenched back before anyone seemed to truly notice it at the sudden grip of Hinata's hand on Sasuke's knee beneath the table.

"Extremely so!" Hinata managed brightly, turning back to Gaara as though Naruto were but an afterthought, an acquaintance she did not know well. "But I will be free tomorrow morning, Gaara-kun. Will you allow me to join you and my sister for your training?"

Gaara started, seemingly surprised by this turn in the conversation. From across the table Naruto frowned, eyes flicking back to Hinata at her suggestion.

"I would... I would very much like that." Gaara admitted gently, and to Hinata's shame his cheeks reddened, face ducking to look at his plate rather than her earnest face.

Only after Sasuke put his hand over her own did she realize she still gripped his knee and flushing scarlet snatched her palm back as though scalded.

"I was thinking something pink, to keep the theme of the cherry blossoms on the tree uniform." Hanabi continued with Sakura, completely enthralled in the conversation she was having to care about the drama being downplayed around her.

"Oh that would be so nice." Sakura smiled, reaching for another piece of salmon to put on her plate.

"I would have picked out the flowers today, actually." Hanabi put waspishly, glancing down the table at Hinata. "But someone showed up much later than she said she would today."

Blinking rapidly Hinata pushed at the piece of squid on her plate, smoothing the hand she had touched Sasuke with on her lap over and over without any success at keeping it from getting clammy.

"I'm very sorry, Sister."

"I brought you something." Sasuke cut in as Hinata drew a breath to continue apologizing.

Hanabi turned, pale Hyuuga eyes alighting on him with confusion and amusement. "What?"

"I believe whoever opened the door when I arrived put it in a vase." Looking up Sasuke motioned to the corner of the room where a maid was rising to gather the vase thickly filled with the purple blooms from the hazelnut orchard, walking around the table for Hanabi to inspect them at her side.

"Y...you brought these for me?" Hanabi touched a velvet soft petal with her fingers delicately, all the sharp cunning edges of her face smoothed for the moment as though buffed away by the softness of the flower.

"I thought perhaps you would like them for the Crane Folding Party. This is just a sample."

From across the table Naruto grunted, blue eyes fixated on Sasuke's face. "How thoughtful."

"Yes." Hanabi admitted, face flushed despite her best intentions at keeping calm. "I...I love them, thank you so much."

Turning to look at her fiance nervously she cleared her throat, reaching for her tea as the servant removed the vase from her reach. "Thank you, Uchiha-san." And Sasuke nodded, watching out of his peripheral vision as the usually spiky thing that was his fiance softened for a moment, reminding him in a painful twist of his guts of her sister sitting on his right hand side.

"Well, this is lovely." Kakashi put in as the silence continued for a breath. "Very entertaining."

Hiashi sighed heavily. "I'm glad you're finding it diverting, Kakashi-san."

Sakura's voice joined in as she scolded her old sensei for being rude and it was then, in the moment of quiet as Hinata tried to breathe slowly to keep herself from hyperventilating or worse passing out that Sasuke's hand snapped to her knee and squeezed as tightly as she had his a moment before.

Eyes flying up in surprise Hinata followed his gaze and froze, any color that had risen to her neck and cheeks from the awkward embarrassment of the evening draining away to paleness at the sight of Itachi standing right behind Kakashi, looking rather smug.

"Oh, gods be cursed." Hinata whispered.

Startled, Hiashi turned to his daughter, brows raised. "Hinata, what did you just say?"

"Ah-" Hinata fumbled, neck snapping to her father sharply. "I-"

"Gods please." Sasuke clarified deceitfully, putting a hand to Hinata's back gently. "You look very pale."

For a moment Hinata nearly snapped at him that he was one to talk, looking about as white as the ghost who was now peering between Kakashi and Gaara at the dishes on the table with interest.

"Hinata, your lips are white!" Sakura called, moving to stand with great difficulty around her belly. "Is it your blood pressure perhaps? Let me have a look at you."

"Ah, I'm- I'm all right, I promise I just- ah...I.. I..." Hinata floundered, shoving herself to her feet stiffly. Keeping her eyes so decidedly away from Itachi resulted in her staring almost exclusively at Sasuke instead, face pinched and helpless.

"Probably overworked yourself in the sun today." Sasuke suggested to her vigorous nods.

"In the sun?" Hanabi sounded incredulous. "What were you doing in the sun?"

"I just need to lay down for a moment, I'll be right back." Hinata's voice wobbled as she watched Itachi lean an elbow on Gaara's head to peer into the sake cup in his hand curiously.

"Oh, no you can't go alone." Sakura called, still trying to get up from her knees without much success. "Let me-"

"I'll take her." Sasuke snapped, ignoring Naruto's grunted displeasure as he led Hinata to the door.

"But-" Hanabi called.

"I'll be right back." And before anyone else could say more they exited the dining room and headed past the the foyer and down the hall.

"Chances of fainting are about 7 out of 10 right now." Hinata informed Sasuke feebly as he guided her back towards where he thought her rooms were.

"For you or me?" He growled. "If my brother was not dead I would be-"

"Killing me? Come now, we've been there done that." Itachi swirled into being beside them as they walked down the corridor, making them freeze abruptly at the sight of him.

"Itachi-san, what are you-?" Hinata began.

"Oh, don't call me that. Itachi is fine."

"Nii-san." Sasuke's tone had never had more begging in it before and for a moment he was glad to have his arm around Hinata, if only to anchor him down and keep himself from trying to rip the apparition apart.

"Fine, fine. But you can't really blame me. I'm dead. What other kind of fun could I possibly be having?"

"Itachi." Hinata snapped, surprising both the Uchiha in attendance. "Why are you here? Are the children all right?"

"Yes, or... I mean they're not hurt. But Hina seems to have woken...not in the best mind set. Neji was insistent I get you." He relayed slowly. "I figured you would want to know."

"Perhaps a little more discreetly, next time?" Sasuke snarled.

Itachi smiled wide then. "Are you joking? I enjoyed that very much. You both suddenly looked like you saw a ghost."

"Ugh." Hinata wrinkled her nose with dislike.

"It's fine, dear. No one else could see me. Promise. I'll leave you two to it then." And with a poof he disappeared.

Leaning heavily now on Sasuke, Hinata closed her eyes, hiding half her face behind a hand.

"Was he always this..?"

"Insane? No! Maybe? I don't know I didn't see him a lot and when I did I was largely trying to..." Sasuke began, hesitating at the end. Hinata peeked at him past her fingers.

"Kill him?'

"Yes. It sounds so wrong now considering he's..."

"Dead?"

There was a long pause in which they stared at each other, and then with the suddenness only nerves can bring Hinata burst into giggles, ignoring Sasuke's choked shushing as he fought a smirk from overtaking his face.

"All right...all right. What do we do?" Hinata gasped, holding her side where her ribs ached and flushed now where she had been painfully pale before she peeked around the corner for pursuers.

"I don't know. If I tell them you're not coming back they're going to send Sakura to check on you."

"And there's not a lot of excuses for you to leave." Hinata mustered nervously.

Together they thought, Hinata biting her lip nervously in a way that Sasuke was making an avid point of not memorizing.

"We need... a diversion." Hinata murmured, trying to think of a big enough thing to let them escape relatively unnoticed until much later when excuses could be formulated.

"Like?" Sasuke frowned, peering down the hall at the sound of a door opening and closing and the familiar lumbering step of one blonde and obviously annoyed Hokage.

"Whatever it is." Sasuke muttered darkly. "Has to be now."

Wincing, Hinata studied the wood floor of the Hyuuga Main House.

She could see in her mind's eye Hina sobbing alone in Sasuke's home, her heart pounding enough to hurt and her panic melting through her mind. It was a horror that Hinata had endured, with her mother's soothing whispers and then as she grew older with strength Hina did not yet possess.

There was nothing for it.

Wood versus a child's pain.

"Set something on fire."

"What?" Sasuke spun to look at her incredulously. "Katon." Hinata hissed, squeezing his wrist as she moved past him in the direction of the incoming Hokage. "I'll distract him."

"But-"

Turning the corner sharply Hinata brightened her face, startling Naruto to stop down the hall.

"Hinata? Hey, I was just coming to look for you two. Where's Sasuke?"

"I thought he returned to dinner." Hinata lied blandly, marching right past Naruto and grabbing his arm began dragging him down the hall. "Did he not?"

"No. Listen, I have been meaning to talk to you..."

"Oh?" Hinata continued blithely. "I'm feeling much better, thank you for asking."

"What? No, I meant to talk to you about, a couple things actually." Naruto blinked at her, confused by the lack of eye contact as she opened the dining room door. "Hinata,"

No sooner had she opened the door to the soft chatter of the dining room than a shriek from the foyer echoed, followed by the running footsteps of a servant in a panic.

"Fire! Fire!"

The smell of ash and smoke drifted in through the open door and Hinata winced visibly, even as her father and sister jumped to their feet.

As chaos ensued, Hinata drifted into the shadows and with only a brief hesitation disappeared.

* * *

Night was not the goddess Ama's time. In the night her light fought shadows, strained against the darkness and made her usually beautiful eyes glow with the red of demonic power.

Susa smiled, tall and muscled and serene in the darkness, with only the blue of the moon's light to bathe in he stretched his arms wide in welcome.

"Sister!"

A choir of furious voices leapt from her mouth, the sparks of her golden hair sprinkled the night with cinders that threatened to brighten to scorching in the remnant heat of the unnaturally hot spring day. "You wretched spawn, cursed be the day our Father and Mother created you!"

"Careful, Sister dear." Susa grinned, spreading his lips wide over an incredibly unnatural number of sharpened teeth. "You'll make their whole world catch fire with your tantrums. Already their land is parched and thirsty. What were you doing simmering away in irritation all day, making their sun bake them so early in the spring."

"What did you do to the child?" Ama grew in stature as she approached her brother, reaching his height with ease so that the magnitude of her person seemed impossible. Delicate wrists supported clenched fists with nails long and lethal.

"If you're going to accuse me of things, at least come informed." Susa replied smoothly through all those deadly teeth. Slowly he prowled around her like a shark, dark blue hair ever shifting along his back.

"I did nothing to break the rules of the wager."

"I hear her cries, they are filled with anguish and terror. You did something." Ama snarled, and as he watched Susa's sister glowed bright as a star, making the shadows dance back not in fear but maniacally, frantically as though the tempo of the inaudible music they frolicked to had sped up.

"I did nothing." Susa kissed the words towards her face, blowing softly on his palm so that the dust upon it sparkled in a cloud to form images that swam in uneven hasty lines. "I cannot make their minds up, but perhaps I suggested something... as she fell asleep." he smiled, watching the nightmare the younger Hyuuga had woken from in a cold sweat. "Perhaps I reminded her of an ingrained fear."

"Despicable." The goddess hissed, sparks flying from her eyes, golden hair usually shifting with an invisible tide now bubbling like molten lava. "Have you no mercy?"

"Don't be coy." Susa snarled softly, leaning forward so that the darkness of his eyes consumed his entire pupil, and the primal otherworldly thing he was peered back at the sizzling chaos of his sister star. "We did this to them. We chose our play things. You knew what it would be like and yet here we are."

Ama panted, each huff of air steaming with heat like a bull ready to charge.

Susa remained smiling despite the violence that threatened at the edges of his lips. "You are just envious. They're not falling in love with your puppets." He grinned bigger. "They're falling for each other."

Silent his sister growled low in her throat, a rumble like the threatening groans of a volcano.

"When they do, they'll break and then..." He lifted his hands in victory. "I will reign." 

* * *

**_I have a confession_**

 ** _I do not. I repeat, DO NOT know what I am doing._**

 ** _please. i mean, dislike it if you want, that's a legit reaction just don't throw rocks._**

 ** _Tomatoes is better._**

 ** _Softer, ya know?_**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**


	12. Chapter 12

_"Who are you then?" his voice was such a little thing, as soft as the singing of the crickets and for a long moment Hinata thought that she must have magically overheard them talking to each other. That was until his eyes, luminous despite their darkness appeared at her feet among the grasses._

 _With an "Eep!" and a stumble back the little Hyuuga flopped onto her butt in the grass. A moment more in silence and she would have stepped on him. In the quiet of the evening he melded with the shadows, among the grass he was a fairy child, all beautiful lips and wondrous glowing skin._

 _Carefully he sat up on an elbow, the corner of his little mouth quirking up in an expression of amusement as he watched her flushing red from her place on the ground._

 _"You're that girl." He answered himself, clearly delighted with the revelation. "The one who blew the biggest bubble in the world."_

 _This was not something Hinata had ever heard of herself. To be the best at something was a goal she had been striving for since she could think straight and had yet to accomplish in her short four and a half years of living._

 _Yet here he was, claiming she had at least one title under her belt. World's Best Bubble Blower._

 _Mouth parting, she breathed in and could do little more than watch as he extended his hand towards her to help her to her feet._

 _Not much taller, but clearly more at ease in his own skin the boy's smile widened as her palm slid slowly into his before he pulled her up._

 _Softly, close enough that the whisper ruffled her bangs and made her ears burn he cocked his head, studying her with a fascination she had never been exposed to. "I'm Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha."_

 _Shakily Hinata felt herself falling, his eyes were a darkness so deep it was the sky without stars. His smile rose to those eyes, filled with a warmth that seemed impossible for the vastness of space and yet her mouth pulled to smiling in response anyway._

 _"I... I'm...I'm Hinata."_

 _His grin widened even more, forehead pressing to hers so their noses brushed and he could feel the heat of her blush on his skin._

 _"I know."_

 _Hinata could not breathe, dared not even when the fireflies rustled at their movement, rising from the grasses in a swarm of glowing humming dust._

He had left before she did, which she did not blame him for. After all, being a successful arsonist required a speedy get away and so she rushed from the compound to Sasuke's house with her breath short and her mind jumping from calm to worry and back as the sounds of the Hyuuga compound in a panic faded behind her.

Night had come in full force, and though the warmth of spring still lingered in the air a chill had crawled up her spine. Moving from shadow to shadow she listened to the song of the crickets through the underbrush and remembered for the first time in decades a memory so threadbare it was nearly see through in her mind.

Fireflies, gold as the remnant glow of sunset had fluttered around them and Hinata had thought with a desperate sort of hope that maybe there was more out there for her than being a humiliation.

 _So young_. Hinata paused at Sasuke's door, contemplating knocking before walking in after thinking better of it.

They had both been so very young.

Silence greeted her along with the blue ribbons of moonlight trembling through the half closed curtains of the living room. Quietly she rose up the steps, pausing at the doorway at the sight of movement.

She had never seen him sway.

He had removed the outer robes required for the formal dinner, and with sleeves rolled up the muscles of his forearms jumped to attention in the dim light, strained as they were from holding Hina's slumped body to his chest. The girl herself shuddered at intervals that suggested her weeping had not been for show. Even in the evening shadows Hinata could make out the swollen mess that were her eyelids, the redness of her lips that said she had been biting.

Conscious of her own habits, Hinata pressed her lips tightly together to avoid doing the same thing.

Sasuke seemed to not notice or not care about her presence. His movements were slow and relaxed, one palm moving in rhythmic circles on Hina's tiny back. Calmly, without knowing what it did to the organ within her chest his lips pressed to the little girl's forehead.

"You're okay, Hina. I'm here."

She must have gasped, or shifted abruptly for his eyes to flicker towards the door but it did not matter, by the time he settled the child back into bed beside the sleeping Sasu, Hinata was gone.

Flying through the fireflies back home.

* * *

"Well, that was a disaster." Hanabi pressed a hand to her face as she watched the servants pulling out the long and rather ugly tapestry that had hung in the hall where the fire had begun. It was an ancient thing, too old to throw away but so old the story of its origin no longer resided in the mind's of anyone living.

Old things were not Hanabi's favorite and so she did not lament it's burning, only it's ability to destroy her evening.

And destroy it certainly had.

"Dinner could have had less fire." Gaara admitted softly beside her. "Less fire would have helped."

Her laugh was a surprise. He was not particularly funny, this he knew but she giggled until she had to grip his arm and smiling a little sheepishly himself he shook his head until she straightened. "Did you see Kakashi's face?" She searched his for agreement, and Gaara felt his lips twitch.

"Afraid so."

"He was _delighted_."

"He did seem extremely happy to hear of a fire."

"If he had not been sitting right there in front of me I would have thought he set it himself." Hanabi sighed, shaking her head. "Unbelievable."

"So that maid said she found the remnants of a lamp beneath the tapestry?" Gaara asked, at the mention of lighting. "Just sitting there?"

"Yes." Hanabi crossed her arms then, her face losing all mirth. "I cannot believe anyone would make such a foolish mistake as to put down an oil lamp. It's seems ridiculous. And of course no one will admit to it because surely that will result in a long scolding."

"And your sister?" Gaara looked around at those waiting for the go ahead to get back inside. The fire had long been put out but the smoke had yet to leave the premises. Those specifically living in the hall where the tapestry had burned now lounged on the cool grasses of the Hyuuga gardens, lit by paper lanterns that glowed beautiful and serene in the night air.

The Hokage and his wife had left shortly after being assured that the house was indeed not going to burn to the ground. They had both seemed less than amused, and Naruto had asked the pertinent question Hanabi had been unable to answer.

 _"Where is Sasuke?"_

No one knew.

"I'm sure Hinata is in her rooms, holed up as usual." Hanabi muttered darkly in reply to Gaara's more easily answered inquiry. "She is not keen on crowds."

"Hm." Gaara hummed, eyeing Hanabi's darkening mood with interest. There was something about Hanabi that seemed... unstable. Like the very sand that cloaked his lands she shifted and moved with breezes he barely understood. One moment her laughter rang brightly, the next she could be treacherous as quicksand. He would have thought the swing of such emotions would have been exhausting but strangely the familiarity was comfortable.

It gave room for him to say things he might otherwise hesitate to voice.

Such as, "You are hard on her."

Hanabi grinned a wolfish smile, turning to him without shame. "I suppose. But then, someone has to. She's been wandering around _pining_ for-" she stopped, realizing abruptly who she was speaking to.

Gaara's green eyes were usually too deep and too carefully graced with soft smiles to show what hid beneath but his stare in the dark was a different thing. Something spiky as a mace ball and just as unpredictable peered back at her despite his pleasant features carefully controlled to show mild curiosity.

"Well, surely you knew about the confession to Naruto." Hanabi cleared her throat as she turned away, unnerved by her desire to look more deeply into those green eyes to see how close she had to get before they made her ache.

"Yes." Gaara admitted. "But I did not think that she had been..." He hesitated, glancing at her more sharply than he had yet, "... _pining_."

"Perhaps pining is the wrong word." Hanabi allowed, surprised to feel a flutter rushing through her belly at his tone. "Perhaps it was something else. Mourning."

No sooner had the word left her mouth than they both nodded within themselves, assessing what they knew of Hinata and fitting the descriptor with ease.

"Mourning." Gaara whispered, looking up at the windows which Hanabi had told him housed the eldest daughter, now brightly lit from within. "Yes, I think you might be right."

No sooner had he taken steps towards the house than Hanabi's hand reached out, gripping his fingers tightly in hers to stop him.

Startled by the touch Gaara glanced first down at their joined hands and then at the youngest Hyuuga in surprise, searching her face for answers.

"I...I am hard on her, Gaara because I want her to be happy. I want... I want her to be more than what she has limited herself to." Hanabi searched his gaze, looking unconsciously for that same dark green so easily sharpened to cutting. "I am hard on her because in her world no one is, Gaara. Not anymore. She did everything everyone told her she could not do, but she failed at the one thing she wanted."

The Kazekage felt his shoulders loosen slightly, expression softening as the worry so evident on Hanabi's features reached her eyes, filling them with tears he was somehow not surprised by.

"You are a good sister, Hanabi. Don't think I don't see it."

Letting go as though finally realizing what she was doing Hanabi straightened, blinking rapidly to keep any moisture from leaving her lashes. Nervously she let out a laugh. "Good luck."

His smile was small, despite the softness of his face and when he turned to leave Hanabi let her shoulders droop.

* * *

The knock on the door surprised her. She had been, if she was honest expecting one at her window.

With her hair in her hands and her brush moving slow and rhythmic through it's dark strands she stared at the window pane ordering herself to stand, to move, to greet her guest.

It took another knock before movement finally animated her limbs and smoothing her fringe with shaking fingers she opened her bedroom door.

Gaara stepped back immediately, as though he had not been expecting an actual answer to his knock and blinking rapidly he licked his lips, hands clasped behind his back. "H...Hinata-sama."

"Gaara-kun." Hinata forced a smile, searching his pale face for clues as to the visit's nature. "Hi."

"I...just wanted to see how you were. You disappeared after the fire and your father was a little concerned." He mustered, searching her face for signs of the paleness that had taken her from the dinner. Memory served of Sasuke's hand on the small of her back, guiding her out. A flicker of annoyance had surprised him in that moment, so small he had stamped it out by turning to Hanabi who watched the proceedings with a mildly confused but mostly uncaring air.

"Oh." Hinata fiddled with the door knob. "Oh... thank you for... for checking on me. I just felt so ill before the fire that after, I just... I just thought it would be best if I got myself out of the way and lay down for a moment. I feel much better now. Would you... could you please let my father know this?"

"Yes, of course." Frowning slightly Gaara cocked his head, watching intently as her eyes flicked anywhere but his face, the nerves with which her body fidgeted unfamiliar. The Hinata he knew and remembered was a calm thing, serene as a ship with full sails on a sunny day. Her smile was easy to come by, her voice soothing to the ear and her aura a calming one. This creature was all nerves and fright, all disquiet and bundled tensions.

"Hinata?"

Perhaps it was the sound of her name on his voice without the added 'sama'. Or perhaps it was the loaded question that was woven within the syllables. Pale eyes startled she looked up, finally meeting his gaze with her own.

"If I have...if I have placed you in a position of discomfort with my arrival..." Gaara whispered, taking a step forward that felt like inching towards a cliff. "If I have in any way caused you stress with my presence, please... please know I am very sorry and I wish so much to remedy that. I have felt like such a nuisance and I-" He paused, watching as her eyes so wide in her face filled with tears.

It appeared that all Hyuuga women were capable of stopping a man's heart with those tear filled eyes.

"It was not my intent." Softly, he reached up to wipe away one of the wayward tears from her cheek. "I'm sorry."

Something of her old stillness came over her limbs then, as she took two small steps to breach the gap between them. With her fingers tight on the fabric of his shirt she pressed her face to his chest to hide the rest of the overflow of weeping, shoulders tight beneath his grip.

"You are too good, Gaara-kun." Her muffled words made the air in his lungs so frozen as he waited suddenly move in a soft sigh. "Too good."

Down the hall, watching with similar pale eyes Hanabi tried to smile and found that even in the privacy of her own chambers she could not fake it.

* * *

Hina woke him with kisses.

It was the first time ever being woken so, and although in theory such waking would be pleasant too many ingrained habits caused his muscles to stiffen to rocks at the feel of her soft mouth on his cheeks and forehead to keep from jutsu-ing her into ashes with Katon.

Softly, baby breath whispered over his face. "Good morning."

Sasu's amused giggles on his right forced him to open one eye distrustfully because although Hina he knew was up to nothing special there was never knowing what Sasu's giggle might be heralding.

To his surprise the boy was sitting cross legged beside him, his smile calm and his eyes clear of grudge, at least for the moment.

"Good morning." Sasuke allowed, surprised again by another kiss from Hina's tiny mouth on his nose. He blinked repeatedly at her from his place on the very edge of the bed as both the kids had taken up larger and larger portions of it through the night but also refused to let him leave for the couch any time he made an attempt to do so.

"Breakfast?" Hina supplied very carefully, poking her fingers together as her pale eyes shifted left and right. Mussed bedhead had her hair sticking straight up in a gravity defying bird's nest and the weeping she had endured had her eyes still swollen despite her deep rest at his side.

Letting out a heavy sigh of his own Sasuke reached out as he sat up to rub at the salt trails left at the corners of her eyes, clumping her lashes together. "So many tears, Hina. What happened last night?"

The child shifted beneath his touch although she did not pull away, eyes always mid flight and never landing on a surface for long. "I..." she paused, a frown marring the smooth skin of her brow as she thought. "I woke up...and...it was dark." She admitted softly.

Sasu listened with the same quiet intensity as Sasuke, studying her as she fiddled with the edge of the pajamas Hinata had bought them.

"Sometimes I think..." she cocked her head, looking out of the window so high above the bed near the ceiling, circular and glowing with the coming brightness of a new dawn.

"...sometimes I think no one will hear me when...I cry." There was no way to know that this had been her truth for many months, that her mother's sickness and the coming of new baby Hanabi had drawn away any attention that a small quiet creature such as herself inspired from those around her. Too many nights had been spent in terror not of the dark, or even the nightmares that plagued her, but of loneliness that could not be vanquished.

Sasuke breathed out softly, pressing his hand on her hair to try to smooth it's wildness. "I heard you." It was the only thing he could think to say in reply.

Hina's gaze landed finally upon his face, her kissable mouth spreading into a tired but welcome smile.

"Yes."

A sound made Sasuke sit up abruptly, turning towards the door of the room in surprise only to find Sasu smirking at him.

"Big Hinata is making breakfast." Sasu explained easily, rubbing at his face. "She promised me tomato omelette."

Scooping up Hina as he went Sasuke ruffled Sasu's hair and started down the stairs, strangely wary as he approached the kitchen doorway.

In the brightness of the morn the house was a different place. Light flooded the flung open curtains and with the window panes unlocked the chirps of birds on their morning rounds harmonized with the rustle of the trees.

Doing battle with this melody was the chop-chop-chop of knife on cutting board and the sizzle of delicious things in hot oil. Wriggling in his grip Hina slid from his arms to the ground with one final peck to his cheek and scampered with Sasu to the table where cut fruit sat in bowls on two place settings.

A third had a cup of steaming coffee, enticing even as he hesitated to cross the threshold.

Hinata did not look up at their approach. Hair pulled into a high ponytail that swayed with her movements she minced away at vegetables on the cutting board before dumping the whole mess into a piping hot pan, swirling the contents in a fluid artful motion with a spatula.

"Good morning!"

There was no reason not to trust the scenario except for the fact that Sasuke had yet to encounter such a thing. Besides his memories, where a dusty half visible ghost of his mother superimposed itself on Hinata's current form there were no home cooked meals let alone breakfasts on Sunday mornings for him to compare this to.

Cautiously he crossed his arms, leaning against the arch of the kitchen entrance without making a move towards the tempting coffee at the table.

"Where did you disappear to last night? I thought you were coming after the fire." Any bite that might have come with the question was muffled by his genuine curiosity and mild worry. Hinata did not turn to look at him but reached on tip toe for the salt shaker high on the top shelf next to the stove, nearly dipping the ruffles of her pink apron into the sauteing vegetables in the pan.

"I got...sidetracked." With a little hop she knocked the salt shaker over, resulting in her hands on her hips in consternation, spatula looking more like a weapon with each passing moment.

"Sidetracked." Sasuke muttered, stepping forward to reach past her for the object of her current desire. Unconsciously his hand lingered at the small of her back as he stretched. "With?"

"Uh..." Taking the item without so much as looking at him she moved back to the stove. "I was talking to Gaara for a bit. I went for a predawn spar with him before I came here." The eggs were next, piled like shining oversized pearls in a bowl beside the sizzling tomatoes and herbs now fragrant in the hot oil. Blindly she grabbed a couple, cracking them both with ease. "I think...I think perhaps we need a routine."

"A routine." Sasuke was starting to feel like a parrot. Everything coming out of Hinata's mouth and general person seemed...wrong somehow. Her cheerful hello, her lack of eye contact, the smooth way she moved through the kitchen but refused to stand still for longer than a moment.

Frowning the Uchiha moved towards the table, settling in front of his coffee but paying it no mind.

"What kind of routine?"

"I think I should come at dawn, get breakfast done and the kids ready to go out." She dove right into her plan, twisting the pan in her hand so that the now scrambled egg coated the bottom evenly. Sasuke caught the flash of her pink tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated.

Shoving the thought of that particularly adorable image away he glanced at the children now elbow deep in fruit and yogurt and clearly very happy about it.

"Go where?"

"The pond, probably. It's the safest location I can think of to keep them out of harms way but also not locked inside a house. And...there's room for...activities, there." Carefully Hinata walked back to the table, sliding one half of a giant omelette onto Sasu's plate, and the other onto Sasuke's.

"Activities."

Yes.

He was officially a parrot.

"I just..." Hinata hesitated, opening the oven to reveal stacks of pancakes from within. "I just thought...I just realized, what if...we don't succeed?"

Hands mitted and full of pancakes she walked back to the table, placing the steaming towers at the center where butter and syrup sat in dishes Sasuke did not recall owning.

"You mean..." He drifted off, eyes flashing to Hina and Sasu giggling as they speared two, three pancakes at a time and flopped them onto their plates.

Finally still, Hinata removed the mitts from her hands, pressing them to the table where she stood beside him. Eyes tracing the pretty pattern of stars across the navy of the quilted fabric she let out a sigh.

"If we fail, I want them to have the best chance they can in whatever future this turns out to be."

"You want to train them." He tried to sound calm. Supportive even, but the incredulous got away from him at the last moment.

"Yes." Her reply was firm, even if her eyes didn't dare stick to his face for longer than a second. Struck suddenly by the familiar hesitation on Hina's face only moments before Sasuke reached out, grabbing at Hinata's wrist before she could dash back to the stove.

"Hinata, we already had a plan, why are you-?"

"I want to be... I want them to be prepared. That's all. And this way, I will have them in the mornings, until noon or so. You can take them after and I will have time to spend at the hospital and helping Hanabi and..." she hesitated again, balking before forcing herself to continue, "...and a chance to see Gaara-kun. I will return before dinner to help with putting them to sleep, and we can do it all over again. I...I think maybe this could work."

Words crowded Sasuke's mouth, unwieldy and without order they jostled to be said. Questions, mostly about the paleness of her face contrasting with the bright pink of her cheeks, her inability to look him in the eye, the sudden need for a backup plan when just the night before there had been talk of aiming for joy.

Joy, she had said.

It was missing here, despite the brightness of the morning and the smile she forced on her face. Nodding towards the breakfast spread and twisting her hand expertly from his grip she turned back to the stove.

"I'm going to pack bento for everyone. You should maybe go see the Hokage."

A splitting headache thundered through his brain at the mention of the blonde, and pinching the bridge of his nose he closed his eyes. "Ugh. That idiot."

"He... he's going to come here looking for you, if you don't go to him. I doubt he didn't figure out how the fire started last night." Hinata pressed slowly, washing the pan she had used for the omelette in the sink as she spoke.

"Yes. You're right." Sasuke muttered, finally grabbing onto the coffee like a lifeline at the daunting task of having yet another unpleasant conversation with the whiskered blonde. "Although what I will possibly say to dissuade him-"

"He should trust you."

It was said so firmly Sasuke stopped mid sentence, watching as she scrubbed, shoulders nearly to her ears telegraphing the tension she had clearly kept out of her voice.

"I don't exactly have the best record when it comes to wise choices," Sasuke began surprised again when she turned around, sudsy hands dripping onto the floor as she frowned at him.

"You've never lied."

Sasuke blinked, and took a scalding sip of coffee to buy himself time.

"I've also nearly killed him several times."

Waving the information away like it was a floating fluff Hinata turned back to her dishes. "He's being unreasonable. Of all the things you've done, lying is not one of them. He should trust you. He _should_."

It was entirely wrong that he was smirking behind her back. So wrong he had to work to erase the expression from his lips even as he reached over to snatch the syrup from Hina's hand before she flooded her entire plate with the sticky substance.

"Are you angry with him?" Calmly he fixated on poking at his omelette, on not looking at her stiffened back, the pause in her work saying more than the soft gentle voice that replied.

"Perhaps a little."

Taking an experimental bite out of his breakfast Sasuke chewed slowly, still unsure of what exactly was happening inside the trim and carefully held together kunoichi before him.

In fact, he was not even sure of what was happening inside his own mind.

All he knew was the smirk kept fighting to come back.

* * *

"You look chipper."

Hanabi smiled as Gaara approached from the house, dodging work men sweating in the climbing heat of the day as they hauled the timber required to fix the disaster of last night's fire.

All over the grounds men and women rushed here and there, carrying vases, shining floors and walls. On the southernmost point of the garden where flats of grass were dotted with stepping stones poles had been erected with all of the shining white bedding for what Gaara assumed was the entirety of the estate hanging to dry.

All of the extended Hyuuga family would be arriving at the end of the next week after the Crane Folding Party and from then on the festivities would kick up without mercy.

If chores could be done before the fray then they were being tackled. Fire or no fire.

"It's a fine day." Gaara replied softly, coming to stand beside Hanabi where she had taken post at the edge of the gardens. Hands behind her back she surveyed the servants absently, studying the mild flush on his usually pale face and the almost smile that lingered at the edge of his lips.

"Father and I rather missed you and my Sister at breakfast this morning." Unable to be idle she grabbed at a bloom sprouting nearby, lifting it to her face to smell as she spoke.

"Ah. I apologize. We made plans later in the evening yesterday and I had no time to convey them to you, although your father knew."

"Yes, he mentioned. I am glad you had a chance to spend some time with her. It went well?" Picking at the petals on the flower Hanabi kept her eyes away, a little annoyed with herself for wishing to look elsewhere. It had been drilled into her early in life to look a person in the face and yet at least this particular morning it was proving difficult.

 _I'm tired._ She decided firmly. _Tired and stressed._

"I believe so, she was... more as I remember her." Gaara offered, turning to study the younger Hyuuga finally.

"Well, you're the first to see that miracle. She's been so strange of late even I don't know what to make of it. Vanishing all day, reappearing and feeling ill all the time, ducking out of dinners. Now I think she's even got herself in a quarrel with Father." Stubbornly she looked up, meeting his green gaze. "And she has not done that in a very long time."

Gaara's smile was only slightly admonishing. "Hanabi, it is not easy I am sure, having your younger sister marry before you. Also, you yourself told me that if there was one thing she felt she failed at, it was... well love, if I understood correctly." Gentle as his tone he reached up, rubbing at the tip of her nose so that she froze, stunned by the contact.

"And your Father explained to me that they had a misunderstanding, not a quarrel. I'm hopeful I can help remedy the tension, in fact." He chuckled lightly at her baffled expression, showing her the tips of his fingers where pollen had stained them yellow from her nose.

Offended by the treacherous flower in her hands Hanabi tossed the thing over her shoulder, rubbing at her nose roughly. "Oh." She finally offered, less than adequately.

For a moment they were silent, watching as the workers moved about, an ant hill of activity all around them.

"Where is she now, then? Did she tell you?" Watching out of the corner of her eye Hanabi withheld a sigh, mildly annoyed with herself again.

"She said she had some things to do." Gaara's voice was a shrug even if his shoulders remained perfectly straight, hands clasped behind his back. "But she did say she would be here in time to join us for the walk through the gardens that we missed out on yesterday."

"Oh." Hanabi mused, recalling the plans that had fallen through. "That's right. Although, I hardly need her anymore. Uchiha-san has solved the issue of the flowers for me."

Gaara nodded, recalling the bouquet thoughtfully. "I remember." Taking a breath he bit back a sentence, just barely catching the words before they escaped into the warm spring air.

Brow raised and hand on her hip Hanabi eyed him, unimpressed. "Whatever it is, spit it out."

"Seems odd," Gaara dared, moving out of reach and back towards the house, "to be calling your fiance Uchiha-san, no?"

Hanabi blanched, at once offended and blind sided by the astute observation on the slightly socially inept Kazekage.

"It will change, I just... it never occured to me."

The redhead cocked his head, thinking of Hinata's mouth forming his name, releasing it into the air without a suffix to burden it.

"Perhaps it should, Hanabi."

The younger Hyuuga watched him disappear into the house, smiling a bit cheekily before dashing away, leaving her baffled at herself, at her situation and at the twists turning painfully in her chest.

* * *

"I can't do that." Naruto's voice was on the edge of whining. Sundays were the worst days to be at the Hokage tower. No one wanted to work, it was by far the least productive day and to top it off the already exhausted leader of Konoha was at the end of his rope wishing for the days when Sundays were free to run wild through the woodlands that shrouded their village in mystery.

Sasuke would not have been there if it weren't for the bento in his bag and the fight itching in his knuckles, practically sealed with Hinata's approval.

It was proving to be a very lovely day.

From within the Hokage's office Shikamaru sighed heavily. "If you put in a couple hours more next week then around the time the baby is due you should be able to have time off, perhaps even several weeks."

"Not if that bastard is still slacking." Naruto's tone left no room to wonder who this bastard was and feeling it was the perfect time for an entry Sasuke slid into the room noiselessly, closing the door with a bang to highlight the effect.

It had the desired reaction of making Naruto flinch and knock over a stack of reports on his desk. Shikamaru beside him threw his hands up.

"I hate Sundays." He informed the universe before bending down to start gathering up the mess. Naruto and Sasuke ignored him.

"You?" Naruto scoffed, hands on hips. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Last I checked you were complaining at my absence." Sasuke replied simply, removing his cloak to throw on a chair.

"I wasn't even sure you still worked here." Naruto ignored his reply. "Where the hell did you disappear to last night? You couldn't have just excused yourself like a regular human being you had to set the Hyuuga house on fire?"

Shikamaru had stopped moving, eyes flicking back and forth and his cigarette ash getting dangerously long.

"Dobe-" Sasuke began and stopped, sidetracked by the fact Shikamaru's cigarette ash had fallen and was now burning a hole through the reports in his hand.

"Oh." Standing, Nara shook out the paper to dispel the possibility of flame and without so much as another word excused himself. He knew a storm when he saw it building, no need to hang about.

No sooner had the door closed behind him than Naruto shook his head. "You must really think I'm an idiot." Walking back to his desk he flopped on the chair, rustling through papers absently. "A bigger idiot than I ever realized."

Sighing but saying nothing Sasuke meandered to sit across from his oldest friend, allowing himself the luxury of crossing his arms as he waited.

"I thought we had an understanding." Naruto continued slowly, biting the words in a rather feral way. "I thought that we were past this sneaking around destroying your life nonsense, and yet here we are again, on the brink of a wedding meanwhile you're out _philandering_ with the sister of your fiance."

"Philandering." Sasuke mused softly, attempting to remain calm even as his temper spiked. "Do you know what that word means?"

"This wedding made no sense even before I knew what you were up to with Hinata." Naruto finally leaned back in his chair, defeated. "What are you doing, Sasuke? Why?"

Looking back and forth the two men sized each other up, contemplating the damage a full on brawl would result in before both deciding against it. As quietly as his exhausted counterpart Sasuke leaned forward, studying the whiskered and tense face before him for signs of the trust Hinata was sure he deserved.

Finding none he finally leaned back, crossing his arms once more. "When have I lied to you?"

Naruto's frown only deepened. "You cannot look me in the eye and tell me something is not going down with Hinata Hyuuga. Don't play games."

"Something might be." Sasuke admitted. "But not what you're thinking. Not by a long shot."

"That's what you keep saying." Naruto shook his head. "But I know you. I do, despite what you might think and I know, whatever is happening should _not_ be. And I should hope that were _I_ being as moronic as _you_ are proving to be that _you_ as my supposed friend would take the time to tell me not to blow my life up."

Sasuke frowned slightly, surveying this information which he had not considered. Naruto had a penchant for getting himself tangled up in Sasuke's affairs, and always had. Never, mind you with all the information required for wise decisions. This had seemed true to form and therefore mildly infuriating. Once upon a time he had been thankful for Naruto's dogged determination but now being on the receiving end of the stubbornness when it was not merited truly grated, worse than salt on a wound.

The truth was undeniable, formed on Hinata's lips without hindrance, releasing it into his mind with surprising firmness.

"Naruto, I'm asking you to trust me."

Blue eyes met onyx in the stretched silence, contemplating as their relationship hung in the balance. Slowly the blonde leaned back in his chair, rubbing at his brow tiredly before sighing.

"I do trust you, teme."

Letting out a long breath he had not realized he had been holding Sasuke grabbed a stack of reports to inspect.

"Well, act more like it then, dobe."

Still watching him mournfully Naruto tried to sit up, to move on with the work and the things that were important on the desk before them.

But the frown wouldn't fade and the worry soured his stomach. If there was one thing he knew could be trusted it was his instincts and they still writhed like nervous snakes.

* * *

"You just have to breathe. It's not easy," Hinata soothed, smiling despite herself. Before her Sasu stood ankle deep in the shallows of the pond, brow furrowed so deeply it was nearly a scowl.

Chakra ebbed in small uncertain pools at the bottom of his feet half submerged in the soft silt of the pond edges.

Beside him Hina extended a hand in offering, gladly taken as he stepped gingerly onto the water's unstable surface, wobbling uncertainly on one foot.

"That's it." Hinata crooned softly, grabbing his other hand to help his balance. "Feel the waves and adjust the amount of chakra."

Sweat glistened on Sasu's face, trailing in long rivers down his cheek. "Nii-san could do this, I can do it."

Said Nii-san was watching from the shadowy boughs of the nearby willow tree, the smile on his face mildly amused.

"Always competing." He lamented, glancing at the brooding Hyuuga spirit hugging the shadows with him on the tree. "Was Hinata like that?"

"No." Neji shook his head, watching the two versions of his cousin below encouraging a miniature Sasuke Uchiha to walk on water- as if the child didn't already think he was heroism incarnate.

"Hm." Itachi mused, turning back to look at the girls, their smiles wide and encouraging as Sasu managed to stand without help upon the watery surface, knees flexed as though on a surf board as he balanced. "Must have been nice not having to worry about her that way."

"There was plenty to worry about." Neji retorted thinly, and the evidence was clear as they watched two Hinatas where only one should have been.

"True." Itachi admitted, swinging his legs idly. Quietly, they surveyed the scene as Hina smoothed the chakra along her feet with narrowed eyes, her lips pressing thin as she concentrated.

"Have you thought at all about...the nightmare?"

Neji had been waiting for this, had been expecting the conversation to flourish from the Uchiha's mouth but without certainty of when. Memory flashed vivid and bright through his eyes, memory of a dark oil spill appearing in Sasuke's room where the children slept. Fetid and a black so deep it sucked light greedily the oily darkness had gathered itself into a nebulous dog-like shape with no face and a mouthful of teeth stained with something Neji had not wanted to question.

Their attempts to wake the children, and to keep the creature from nuzzling Hina and eventually sinking within her had been in vain. It had been a terrible moment to watch the tiny sleeping child with the melting blackness panting above her, all teeth and no remorse.

"Of course I've thought about it." Neji replied softly, closing his eyes. Hardly any other thoughts had graced his mind since then.

"As have I." Itachi poofed away and reappeared before the sulking Hyuuga. "I have a theory."

"You don't say." Neji grumbled, although he was rather keen to hear it. He had his own thoughts on why a demonic looking spirit would have found its way into Sasuke's room so unexpectedly and at such a time as when the children were alone. Having something to compare his thoughts to might be useful, if it weren't an insufferable Uchiha that offered the opportunity.

"Yes, I do say." Itachi peeked through the willow fronds distractedly, sensing somewhere deep within the watery unstable construction of his body the approaching chakra signature that was so familiar.

"I have a theory that one of the gods sent it-although it hardly matters who."

"I know." Neji shook his head at him. "The Lady Ama would never-"

"Ah, you are too quick to trust appearances." Itachi scolded mildly, moving as though to pat Neji's head and succeeding only in passing his own ghostly hand through Neji's forehead.

Grumbling the Hyuuga guardian moved back several feet. "Those gods are both selfish egocentric children, their power being put aside." Itachi continued, unoffended by the withdrawal. "Lady Ama, powerful though she is, is still in on the bet but I am noticing things."

Neji did not reply, glancing back to the children who had let out cries of delight at the appearance of a shape walking towards them from the top of the hill separating the lake from the hazelwood.

"If I am right and Susa set the nightmare loose..." Itachi continued, drawing Neji's attention back with the intensity of his voice. "Why would he have done such a thing? If heartbreak is the the thing he wants why encourage affection between Hina and Sasuke?"

Neji frowned at him intently, reassessing this information. He had been so bothered by the sight of Hina's frightened cries, so disgruntled by the choice of weapon used against her that he had not been thinking straight, about what the repercussions of such a tool would be.

The only discernible thing he knew to have been caused by this had been Sasuke's further attachment to the child, inconsequential in the grand scheme of the wager.

Unless...

"You're back." Hinata's voice was feather soft, even a little shy. Sasuke was unable to reply, nearly thrown off his feet by Hina and Sasu's energetic welcome nearly tackling him into the wild grass.

Smiling the Hyuuga princess stood, dusting herself off nervously before walking forward, arms looped behind her back in a familiar uncertain stance.

Hina's voice was bright, if a little breathy with uncertainty as she scrambled into Sasuke's arms.

"We...I... we missed you!"

"They can't be together." Itachi explained softly, wincing at the flush of red that rose to Hinata's neck, hidden by the slap of a pale hand to her skin. "Not in this reality. Here they would have to sacrifice all for each other, and neither will demand such an offering. Hinata would devastate her sister, disappoint her family."

"Sasuke would prove all of the Hokage's fears true, fracturing the bond, alienating himself in a village that already is distrusting." Neji continued.

"Heart break." Itachi continued slowly. "Even if either of them admit to their feelings, the other will deny it, surely. If we know our charges at all."

And they did. Neji could already see the way Hinata spoke quickly, tracing a hand affectionately through Sasu's dark hair and keeping herself purposefully from Sasuke's side departed quickly, hardly a moment after his arrival.

"Damn it." He sighed softly. "Why would the goddess Ama allow for such a thing?"

"Maybe she didn't care." Itachi supplied darkly, glancing at his companion with a mirthless smile. "Maybe she thought if they did fall in love with each other they would sacrifice the stability of the village and those they cared about for it regardless, earning her the win. Maybe all she cares about is scoring against her brother."

Neji rather wished he had something to say against this statement, but he had seen the competitiveness of the gods, their willful childish conversations, their self centered absent minded treatment of the living.

"No matter who wins this wager, Hinata and Sasuke are going to lose." Itachi finally clarified, distilling his theory down to the acidic base. "Unless, we choose to do something about it."

Neji did not have to be sold on the idea. Already he was thinking up a plan.

* * *

"Hinata." Sakura's voice was a signal flare. It brought Hinata short even just a few steps into the hospital. Hands fiddling with the ends of her hair the Hyuuga studied her friend standing behind the nurse's desk and deliberated the tightness about her eyes and mouth.

"Good afternoon, Sakura." Hinata managed after a moment, moving slowly forward. "Did you get home safely last night? I'm so sorry about what happened."

Hand on her belly as always Sakura let out a laugh, strained over her vocal chords as she walked around the desk. "I was fine. Naruto was a little upset, considering."

It was with surprise that Hinata felt a flash of irritation bloom inside her chest at the mention of the Hokage. Not anger, so much as consternation.

"I would assume it would be upsetting to have his wife and child exposed to smoke at a dinner party." Hinata allowed despite her feelings. "I am glad to hear you're all right."

"Oh he was not mad about that."Sakura continued carefully. "Rather, he was annoyed with the fact Sasuke set the fire, did he not?"

This was not how Hinata had envisioned her first day back at the hospital would be like. She had hoped that promises of consistency and resilience where she had been rather flaky would pave the way for smoother conversations, and more comfortable situations.

Instead she closed and opened her eyes for a moment, contemplating.

"Hinata?" Sakura cocked her head and it was clear then that her green eyes though caring were also wary. "Hinata, did he set the fire?"

"Did the Hokage have a reason for this assumption?" Sidestepping the question she began to move slowly around Sakura in the direction of Tsunade's office, hoping not to be followed by the very pregnant Haruno.

Sakura seemed keen to disappoint however. "Reason? Well he's known his katon about as long as he's known his own rasengan so..." She let out a weak incredulous laugh. "Hinata, what is going on?"

"Hopefully Sas- Uchiha-san will be able to clarify the situation with the Hokage then." Still walking Hinata bowed her head, hiding behind the curtain of her dark hair. "I'm sure the Hokage will appreciate that."

"Stop." Sakura pulled her short, her firm grip on her shoulder hard not to shrug off defiantly. Letting out a heavy sigh both weary and worried Sakura shook her head. "You have been so odd lately. I'm worried. Please. Hinata, what is going on?"

Byakugan pale eyes surveyed her friend, the downturn of her mouth, the pinch of her brows above emerald eyes. Honesty was blatant there, and care. Usually this would have been appreciated if a little painful to receive considering where they were coming from.

Now they grated.

"I'm fine." Hinata replied simply. "I have been a little ill but I think I'm doing better now."

"Yeah?" Sakura cocked her head. "Because Tsunade told me she would like you to have a full physical, before giving your position as my replacement the go ahead."

Eyes widening Hinata stared. "What? Because I was dizzy?"

"No." Looking mildly embarrassed Sakura studied her palm resting on her belly. "Your father requested it."

Suddenly Hinata could see her father's tiredness showing on his face at the breakfast table days before, his comment about errands he had to run, his confusion at her sickness, his worry at her living a life filled with battles and danger in Suna.

"Ugh." She sighed softly, pressing a hand to her forehead. "He spoke to Tsunade-sama the day I was supposed to meet her, did he not? That's why she cancelled our appointment?"

"Yes." Sakura nodded, biting her lip hard. "Hinata... but... Naruto was telling me... he was kind of theorizing... and with your father so concerned I'm just..." Nervously she glanced back and forth along the mostly deserted hospital corridor.

"Hinata, are you... pregnant?"

* * *

 ** _I'm a smidge hysterical because_**

 _ **I don't know where this is going**_

 ** _I'm as much in the dark as you!_**

 ** _Isn't this fun!?_**

 ** _Much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**


	13. Chapter 13

She opened and closed her hands slowly in the dusk light, studying the traces of shadow spilling over the grooves and curves of her palms. Her hands had many stories to tell. There were white pale scars like lace among the freckled smoothness of her skin. One on her thumb in a jagged J shape was the time Kiba-kun had waved about a kunai excitedly and drawn blood. Another slice with the bumpy traces of stitches curved from forefinger down to wrist. It had been born of a badly calculated move in the war resulting in her palm splitting open like a pomegranate mid fight.

There had been no time nor chakra to waste on such a wound. Tenten had pulled out needle and thread, stitched it shut and with a burst of energy sneakily given sealed it closed. It had broken open more than once during the fray and Hinata had ignored it.

There was much she could ignore.

Except, for the burning haze of embarrassment that came with awkward conversations. All the way back home she had studied her hands to avoid looking up and meeting anyone's eye. With her stomach sour and her face still flooded with blood there was no way she could smile and say good afternoon. No, the most she could do was walk, head bowed with the golden shafts of sunlight warming her shoulders as she went.

 _"Hinata, are you pregnant?"_

Never had she thought she would have to prove her innocence in such a thing. All the irritation of Naruto's accusations towards Sasuke had crescendoed to fury as she stared at his wife, so keen to help with her insult.

Was it an insult?

Hinata let her hand smooth over her flat stomach, feeling the groove of her belly button beneath the gray yukata. Sakura had been concerned, and it made sense. Hinata had been claiming tiredness, headaches, a lack of appetite, lethargy. She had been nervous, lying and flaky of late, all things she had made a point to never be in her adulthood.

Wincing against the memory of bumping into the Hokage's wife at a children's clothing store Hinata buried her face in her hands, her steps crunching loud on the gravel road as finally in the quiet of her walk put together the picture the Hokage and Sakura had painted with the tools available to them.

 _"Hinata, I'm not angry. Why would I be angry? I just want to help."_ Sakura had whispered, reaching to take Hinata's hands. It was strangely similar to Naruto's frustrated cries at Sasuke.

 _"Why won't you talk to me about this? It's ridiculous! Let me help you..."_

"Ah, but what are they suggesting?"

Hinata stopped, Byakugan lining her eyes as she scanned her surroundings. Half built homes and stacks of supplies littered the unpaved road leading to Sasuke's house. To the right the sun was drowning in a brilliant golden death, setting the sky to burning. To her left the world was in shadows, growing moment by moment.

Chakra flared, three familiar shapes within Sasuke's house moving around normally.

And then nothing, but the baby fox that sat before her.

In her Byakugan gaze the fox glowed an inexplicable hellfire too bright for his shape and feeling goosebumps rise to her skin Hinata took a slow unsteady step back, evening her stance, lifting her hands nervously in a half hearted defense.

The fox smiled, showing sharp pearly canines on either side of his mouth that were at once nervewrecking as adorable in such a tiny pup.

"Good afternoon, Hyuuga-child. Fear not. You simply dream."

Hinata stared, heart beating loud enough to sound river loud in her ears. "G...good afternoon."

"The Hyuuga are so polite." The fox continued. "Children of the Moon. I suppose it makes sense. Tsuku would have it no other way."

Hinata blinked slowly, the cold pins and needles feeling along her skin growing as the goosebumps spread. "Tsuku...Lord God of the Moon."

The fox smiled some more, shiny teeth glinting in the dusty gold of dusk. "Yes. But tell me, Hyuuga-child. What troubles your mind?"

"N-nothing." Hinata took a step back despite it being the wrong direction towards home. Already her battle senses were screaming in warning. Never had she felt so innately the danger in which she clearly had walked into. This fox, shining in the light of the dying sun looked innocent enough but for the fact her heart was thrashing to abandon her chest.

"Oh, I heard it loud and clear. Your thoughts were so weary they sang their woes like the breeze through reeds." The fox did not move to follow her, happy to watch her back up several steps on the gravel.

"I heard the treachery of your friends."

This made Hinata pause, blinking her pale eyes rapidly. "Treachery? You must be mistaken, my friends did no wrong. Please, I must get home."

Determined, and with her Hyuuga eyes blazing to keep a wary eye on her frightening visitor she moved to storm past the fox only to stop abruptly at the realization that the path had doubled like a mirror and although she spun Sasuke's house and the children within it were always behind her.

Feeling the blood in her veins chill horribly she looked back at the fox who licked daintily at his paw.

"It would seem to me that they want to help." The fox continued. "Their intentions are kind but for the fact that it says a lot about who they think you are."

Hinata did not reply, stiff and frightened she stared, hardly daring to blink.

"After all, only a very awful sort of person would take on her sister's suitor. A conniving sort of person. A jealous one, perhaps." The fox hopped two steps, velvet white paws dancing on the gravel. "Someone aiming to hurt- a walking bomb. For, imagine the damage." The fox cocked his head as if contemplating.

"Your father's broken heart, your family's revulsion, your sister's fury, your friend's rejection." He blinked. "What a mess."

"Well it's fine, because..."Hinata whispered, surprised to be hoarse. "They are wrong, and nothing of the sort will happen."

The fox smiled even wider, shining eyes cunning. "Oh? So then, why did you just call your not-lover's house _home_?"

One blink and the world sang again, the breeze through the trees, the warmth of the sun, the spider silk tickle of her hair along her neck and shoulders.

No fox, no mirrored road.

Slowly, Hinata looked around feeling her heart taking great gulping breaths to calm itself. Confusion was settling into her skin as the sun settled into the embrace of the mountains. What had she been doing?

Ahead the door to the house opened, two small figures bounded down the stairs and she breathed in, distracted from her confusion by the grins so wide on the faces of the children coming to receive her.

"Big Hinata!" Sasu skipped towards her, hair a shining black mane. "I'm hungry!" Hina called, slamming with Sasu into her legs amongst an explosion of giggles.

"Ah." Hinata sighed, scooping up Sasu to hold on her hip, gripping Hina's hand tightly on the walk back. "Let's make dinner then, yes?"

In the doorway Sasuke waited, hands in his pockets as he shook his head. "I told them to stay inside but..." He shrugged, studying her face with a hand on his forehead to block the burning of his eyes by the raging sun.

The heat spiked along her neck before she could do anything about it and she thanked her lucky stars her hair was long enough to hide it. Eyes down Hinata passed through the door, heading to the kitchen with her armful of children.

"It's all right."

"How was the hospital?"

Smoothing out Sasu's hair Hinata thought, grabbing her apron as she swallowed the memories of being poked and prodded, of having blood taken and chakra hands shifting over her. Meanwhile Sakura waited, biting at her nails expecting Tsunade's cry of surprise at any moment when something claimed a pregnancy. Thankfully her expectation was never fulfilled.

"Fine." Hinata replied softly so as to tenderize the lie and make it less sharp. "It was fine."

Outside the fox smiled beautifully before skipping home to his Goddess Lady of the Sun.

* * *

She stood outside of her father's study door with her hand raised and her throat tight so that she mused that perhaps it was the dust particles cinched within her trachea that scratched.

Too long she had been standing there, contemplating the next move and whether or not she was going to knock to enter.

Before she could make up her mind however, the door opened and none other than Gaara stepped back at the sight of her. Behind his wide green eyes and the shock of his red hair her father blinked at her, the moons on his face shining bright in the shadows of his dimly lit office.

"Daughter, is something the matter?"

It was a fair question, and it made Hinata scramble to change the expression upon her face. She could feel the muscles along her mouth move to lift and the crease between her brows smooth itself. "Oh! No, not at all. I was... I was just hoping to speak to you, Father. Gaara-kun." She stepped to the side and was incapable of keeping her face from brightening to a pink sheen at his smile.

"Hinata-sama." He replied softly, passing by and discreetly his fingers pinched at the warm now sweaty smoothness of her palm in a secret sort of code that Hinata was unsure she understood. Without another word he disappeared down the hall and Hinata kept her eyes down away from him and from her father until the latter sighed deeply from within his office.

"Well, come inside then Daughter, and let us speak."

Dinner had been a quiet affair, one that she had on more than one occasion considered abandoning for the safety of her room. That proved difficult, however without a good excuse and considering her time at the hospital she knew at least headaches would no longer be a viable option.

It was a pity, really. All the lies she had been telling about the headaches were proving to be less lies and more prophecies, more than once she caught herself rubbing at her forehead where pressure built inexplicably as Hanabi and Gaara chattered through dinner about the wedding and the Crane Folding Party that would be happening at the end of the new week.

Her father had watched intently, as was his custom now that he and Hinata were at odds over Gaara's proposal. One look into his eyes had made her realize a conversation would have to be had, and so there she was blushing scarlet and feeling more like an adolescent than she had in many years.

"Sit, Daughter, please. I was wondering when you would broach the subject." Hiashi sighed and with a nod to the ever present servant hiding in the corner summoned tea.

From across his ancient desk he could see the paleness of her face once the blood of embarrassment receded. Shadows lingered beneath her eyes that suggested a lack of deep sleep and despite the fact that she moved as gracefully as he had come to expect her fingers twitched in her lap as she settled.

This creature, similar though it was to the daughter that had worried him in years past was not the same. Something burdened her mind and shoulders, and sadly Hiashi wondered if he would ever be privy to that struggle.

"What subject, Father?" Hinata allowed herself to ask although she was fairly sure she knew. Hiashi let himself raise his brows at her past his steepled fingers as he rested his elbows on the desktop.

"The tantrum you threw when I wished to discuss some important matters with you, such as the possibility of your betrothal to a certain Kazekage."

Hinata traced a frayed thread on her kimono skirt, fingers itching to pull on it and knowing if she did the damage would be impossible to fix. Forcefully she pushed on the thread, urging it back into place knowing it would not comply, not to the unwieldy pressure of her finger. It required a more elegant touch, much like the conversation she was about to endure.

"I apologize if it seemed a tantrum, Father. I will admit I was... disheartened by your view of my abilities-"

Hiashi drew a breath to interrupt and was surprised to find his eldest plowing on like a freight train.

"-however I do not now think I was wrong considering that I endured a full physical exam under your request from Tsunade-sama today. A prerequisite I was told, before I could be afforded the position of interim hospital director in Sakura-chan's place."

Hiashi paused with his breath holding tight in his chest, thinking. "I see where you would find the two things coincide but actually they were wholly unrelated."

Finally lifting her gaze from her lap Hinata stared at him, desperation flicking through her face before she clamped the emotion down. "Please, explain to me how."

"What I was trying to say..." Hiashi rubbed at his forehead, too long furrowed and too ancient to erase the wrinkles there. "..when we spoke about Suna was simply that I did not know if I wished for your life to continue as it had, full of danger and threat, never at ease." He leaned back. "You fought hard, valiantly and deserve the peace of raising a family in comfort and joy. You deserve the peace which suits you so well. One of the things which the Kazekage has said draws him to you is the serenity which surrounds you, my daughter."

Pressing her lips into a thin line to keep from biting Hinata worked, focusing on ignoring the burn of her ears beneath her hair.

"It is in this peace that I wonder if perhaps you would not be better suited as Head of the household, although your reluctance does make me hesitate. Hanabi needs something. She is biting at the bit, already her character deteriorates and my hope had been that children, a husband, the running of the family would calm the fire that burns inside her. A fire I will admit to have stoked. Before the peace which envelopes us now I worried that both my daughters would be thrust into a war that would turn them to ashes. I saw your softness and feared it would destroy you. I saw Hanabi's youth and with the spark in it I hoped she would burn bright enough to not be consumed by the violence... but now there is no war and she still..."

"Burns." Hinata admitted softly, seeing in her mind's eye her sister's laugh, her snappish wicked humor as well as the endless energy that prowled always beneath her skin.

"You have told me, outright that the title is not something you wish for yourself and I will, unlike many of the years of your childhood respect that choice." Hiashi sighed deeply, fixing his daughter with a long mournful look which was received with shock.

"If you intend to take the Kazekage, you have my blessing and I dare say I will be blessing the land of Suna as well, for anywhere you go I know you will do nothing but good to those around you. It is your way, after all."

"But...but the physical..." Hinata gasped, choking on tears that had for many years longed to hear such words from her father. Words that although not said had curved his behavior towards her and now spoken aloud made for a complete reworking of who she was.

"You worry me." He grunted then, smiling sadly. "My strong hard working daughter complaining of headaches, looking exhausted? I wanted the best healer in the Fire Country to examine you, lest there be something wrong- even if it was just you overworking yourself on your training. I am your Father. What other reason do I need worry?"

Rivers flowed then from Hinata's eyes, hidden as she moved to bow low, pressing her forehead to the triangle formed by her fingers and thumbs on the hardwood floor.

Thanks were meant to be said then, for his respect and kindness, for his willingness to explain what she had taken as insult when in fact it had been care.

Instead she just sobbed, until he rose from his place of authority behind the heavy wooden desk, so laden with the pressures and workings of the clan, to wrap his child in an embrace.

* * *

He felt her coming, a thing he only really had the ability to do with two particular chakras, one being the loud obnoxious blonde so constant in his life, and the other the equally loud sometimes obnoxious kunoichi that made up his three man team. His family.

Turning like a hound to a scent he adjusted his position on the roof of his house to see her appear at the end of the road, bright in the light of the moon reflecting off the white yukata she wore when sleeping.

It was after all, past midnight and he had assumed that after dinner and bathing the children that she would not return until the morrow. Her eyes, so sharp in the day and the dark found him easily after all, he was no trying to hide. Moving with the ease of a dancer she was upon the roof tiles beside him in only a handful of strides.

One look at her face told him she had been weeping, even if her mouth was in a semblance of a smile as she sat down beside him.

Sasuke didn't speak, eyeing her a little nervously instead out of the corner of his eye watching as the breeze that picked up speed on the empty lands that were the Uchiha property tangled in her hair and tossed it in long ribbons over her shoulder.

"I... could not sleep." She whispered finally, wrapping her arms around her knees, resting her chin on her forearms so that she became a small compact box beside him, smelling faintly of soap and something soft and flowery in the freshness of the night air.

"Me neither." He admitted easily. "It has been some time since I couldn't, considering..."

Hinata laughed, knowing exactly what he meant. The children were a handful. Night wakings demanding water, weeping from nightmares that required whole hours to soothe down, constant watching, cleaning, cooking, feeding. They were not babes in arms either and yet their constant need was exhausting.

Before, when their nights had been filled with nothing but silence and thoughts sleep had not come easily, it had lingered at the door of their rooms and only the rampant run of their bodies through training had been capable of exhausting them to slumber.

It was strange how living across town from each other, connected through so many people they had been unaware of how similar their lives were, day in and day out.

Darkness had come heavy on the town and as the final bars and late establishments were shut down only a handful of lights flickered in the distance. Without competition the stars shone more brightly, sparkling in a mess across the navy and dark indigo. Somewhere the moon was surely shining as well, although they could not see it.

"My brother taught me how to navigate by stars." Sasuke whispered after a long silence, listening instead to the rustle of branches tickled by the trees. "I was about Sasu's age, I think when he began and I never forgot it. It's probably a skill that saved me more than once."

Hinata turned from looking at the heavens, resting her head on her arms to watch him instead. The long stretch of his pale throat, the adam's apple that seemed to be the genesis of the dark tones of his voice, the way his shoulders stretched the fabric of his shirt.

"How likely do you think it is that we will still exist after the end of the month?" He turned to look at her finally, forcing Hinata's pale eyes from his lips up to the intent black of his gaze.

"We can only try." She smiled, a sad expression considering. "What more can we do?"

Sasuke contemplated this, as he had been contemplating all evening after her departure. This thought had been irrevocably tangled with the discomforting question of how her lips might feel on his skin.

"I don't know." He admitted. And he was answering not just her question, but also his own.

He didn't know how her lips would feel.

He didn't know what to do.

When she left finally, squeezing his shoulder gently in comfort he buried his face in his hands and reminded himself of the conversation he had had with Naruto only the morning past.

 _Trust me._ He had demanded.

Now he wondered if he even trusted himself.

* * *

They had, finally after much ado fallen into a rhythm.

Like clockwork, like the sunrise and the sunset they figured out the dance. Hinata arrived before the dawn, often sweaty from the chaos of training with none other than the Kazekage. Breathless and sometimes bruised she busied herself in the kitchen making breakfast.

The clatter of her moving around in the kitchen woke the children who in turn woke Sasuke. Hina with kisses to his nose, Sasu by punching him as hard as he could in the solar plexus.

The screams of their retreat at his disgruntled roar were always Hinata's cue to plate breakfast for them all, pulling out bentos from the fridge as they hurtled down the stairs and took their seats to eat.

Things appeared in Sasuke's bathroom shortly after. Sweet smelling things, a pink pumice stone, a lavender toothbrush, a white fluffy towel that smelled of Hinata.

While they ate, under the supervision of a mildly irritated Sasuke, Hinata showered and when she arrived downstairs in a cloud of beautiful smells that made him ache he would run away to the Hokage tower to do his job at keeping the still suspicious Naruto from complaining.

Hinata would gather the children, and with bentos in hand they would make their way to the Pond.

There she would spend the day encouraging the water walking which soon turned to water running and once mastered allowed them to hang upside down from tree branches collecting the hazelnuts in the wood and sometimes watching baby ducklings amongst the roots of willow trees without being seen by the mother ducks who were protective and displeased by their audience.

Neji and Itachi appeared at random moments, never together and never for long. Hinata mourned their presence out loud to them more than once and their gentle expressions at least made her think they appreciated being missed.

They still never seemed to spend more than an hour visible, disappearing at the lightest touch of a sunbeam through their foggy bodies leaving her once more on her own with the kids.

Like clockwork Sasuke showed up at the Pond an hour after noon. He tried to sneak, because to watch them play without him had taught him a few things.

One was that although Hinata did not particularly like being tickled, she certainly liked to tickle the children. In their games she instilled shinobi skills, as easily as if they were breathing. Throwing hazel nuts while playing tag was not unlike learning the aim required for throwing stars or kunai. Leaping from tree to tree in a game of Don't-Touch-the-Ground encouraged ingenious problem solving when one safe landing was too far for a regular leap.

And the most important thing he had learned was that when Sasu offered a kiss she did not say no. Neither Hinata ever did, and the lack of rejection made the little boy bold. For some reason this was only something he witnessed when they three thought they were alone, his presence had a sort of cooling effect on Sasu. No longer at odds with him since the incident with the nightmare and Hina's now open affection he was at least now tolerable.

It was the best Sasuke could hope for. He did, after all, know himself somewhat.

Days passed this way, and it occurred to both of them that perhaps they were getting used to this. Hinata found that her shifts at the hospital were beginning to get enjoyable as they had not been before. Sakura's sheepishness at being wrong about the pregnancy made her sweeter and also less likely to talk to her out of sheer embarrassment.

Tsunade was glad to see a reliable recognizable Hinata back under her hospital roof, and when nothing of worry came back from her physical results Sakura began to talk of maybe leaving work before the wedding. Hinata could not help but be glad for although it no longer hurt to see the stretched belly beneath the pink haired medic nin's shirt her own flat tummy sometimes reminded her of Gaara, of the joy with which his eyes lit up at the sight of her.

Of what it would mean if her own tummy was ever swollen as Sakura's was.

These thoughts brought on heat to her face that took much time to dispel, largely because they led to another thought, one she always scrambled to block with work, with books, with anything she could. It was an image, less than a thought, of hands she recognized on a certain dark haired Uchiha spread over the smooth pearl shape of her own pregnant tummy.

An impossible image.

"Hinata?"

Caught with her eyes glazed and her face hot from thinking of this impossible future Hinata scrambled to her feet among the hazelwood flowers. Electricity seemed to jump along her digits and her spine, making her twitch where usually she would move smoothly.

Sasuke felt himself frown slightly despite the laugh that tickled his throat. Hina scrambled from his arms to his shoulders, pushing on his dark hair as she did so and causing him to wince as he studied the blushing Hyuuga.

"Are you all right?"

"Y-yes!" Hinata blanched, clearly in contradiction to the still rising heat of her face. "I did not hear you coming!"

"I thought sneaking up on a Hyuuga was nearly impossible." Sasuke mused, trying unsuccessfully to dislodge Hina from his shoulders where she was attempting to stand. The skills she was gaining at the hands of her new tutors were making her bold. She smiled more brightly, laughed more easily and as a result was more obstinate, a thing Sasuke would have never thought to pair with Hinata before.

"Hina, you're killing me. Come down."

"I want to jump from your head."

"She's trying to catch me." Sasu called, and Sasuke tipped his head back to look through the boughs of the hazel trees where Sasu hung upside down and entirely too high for Hina to reach even jumping off Sasuke's shoulders.

"This is a recipe for disaster. Hina, no."

"But-"

"Is there a reason why I must repeat myself when I use the word no?" Sasuke inquired mostly of the universe, he rather doubted the kids had an answer that would suffice.

"How about," Hinata said offhandedly as she gathered their bags and bento boxes strewn about the clearing. "instead of jumping you show Sasuke how you can climb the trees now, Hina-chan?"

This caused the havoc happening on Sasuke's shoulder's to pause as Hina contemplated the suggestion before moving energetically to scramble back down.

"Oh?" Sasuke dared once she had hopped out of his arms and onto the rustling green and purple of the hazelwood blooms. Meandering to Hinata he watched as Hina shifted on her chubby legs, fingers pressing together as she eyed the tree trunk on which the branches of Sasu's perch stemmed. "Has she...?" He whispered to Hinata as she straightened with her arms full, eyeing Hina's indecisive little body with trepidation.

"Once or twice." She whispered back, allowing him to take half the things in her arms. "Perhaps I put too much pressure on her just now, I just-" She froze startled to find Hina's face turned to them, watching intently their interaction until both Sasuke and Hinata focused their eyes on her.

"C...could you count?" She asked, twisting her fingers together tightly before her.

"Three!" Sasu shouted from above and smiling she turned back to the tree, hands coming to her sides as she focused on the trunk.

"Two!"

One deep breath into her small ribs and the tensing of all her tiny muscles.

"One!"

Sasuke bit his lip, surprised to feel a spasm of terror rip through him when the youngster ran, rustling past flowers and setting bees and pollen alike flying through the light of the afternoon sun in gold dust.

"Go on, Hina." He whispered, watching intently as her foot hit the trunk of the tree and she launched upwards, two and then three steps before she wobbled, righted herself and continued the sprint up the gnarled twisting of the bark until with a little shriek of exhilaration and joy she flopped onto her belly at the first branches to fork.

Sasu was hollering, shaking the branches and setting leaves and hazelnuts raining down as he righted himself and began to climb towards her, screeching his delight even as she kicked her legs from her flopped place on the branch. Her pink face wide with a smile that squeezed tears out of the half moons of her eyes.

"You did it!" Hinata cried, clapping as she and Sasuke rushed over, just in time for Sasuke to catch her as she slipped off the branch with a cry.

It was a victorious trek back home in the sunshine, in which the sun competed with Hina's triumphant grin and there were no arguments at supper and no fighting at bath. The children curled together on the bed for the night. Still giggling as they reminisced their shinobi victories of the day and so when Hinata flopped on the couch next to Sasuke it was earlier than usual with the last remnants of the dusk still bright in the heavens.

"Do you think they will remember this, when they go back?" Sasuke asked after a long sigh expelled the tension from Hinata's body and she curled around the armrest, her socked feet tucked up on the couch so that they tickled his side.

"...I don't know." Hinata admitted, eyes closed as she thought back on Hina's wide smile. "But perhaps they will at least remember the feeling of learning and being good at achieving new things. Perhaps that is all they need to remember, if they go back."

"If, you say." Sasuke said after a moment of thinking. "You always say _if_ they go back, but I've seen how Gaara looks at you."

This was enough out of context to merit Hinata opening her eyes to look at him though her body remained lipid where she lay curled. Feeling the weight of her stare on him Sasuke turned his head where it leaned on the back rest. In the last week alone he had seen the nervous mess that the Kazekage became in her presence. Not as Hinata would have done before the Hokage long ago, but where he would carefully choose his words before he now struggled to speak calmly, and his eyes already keen to look upon her now shone when her face turned to him.

Her attentions in the mornings with the daily spar and the afternoons during their evening walks and dinners that followed had done much to warm him to the Hyuuga eldest. Any dinner that Sasuke had found himself invited to in the evenings had been pleasant in comparison to the fiery end of the one held the previous week.

No one cared to pay him much attention but Hanabi who had a confused look about her sometimes, as though she wasn't sure what to make of him, and he could hardly blame her.

He hardly knew what to make of himself, but Gaara he knew exactly.

"He... is very affectionate." Hinata admitted softly, ignoring to the best of her ability the fact that he lifted her feet to lay them across his lap as though it were normal and that she did nothing to claim otherwise.

"Seems like it." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "So, why is this thing not over already?"

Any tension that had seeped out of her as she rested slipped back across her shoulders and she focused on keeping her breathing even as she could.

"I...I suppose I must be doing something wrong."

Sasuke's mouth pursed with displeasure. "That is not what I meant."

"No... I did not mean to say you did- just that I- well...it...it must be me if..." Hinata frowned, thinking back on Gaara and the easy way he smiled, the feel of his hand on her cheek and the whisper of his 'good morning' before dawn every day.

Turning to find Sasuke watching her intently she swallowed, ignoring the melting heat of her ears burning and within her insides squirming.

"He must be doing something wrong." Sasuke stated simply before closing his eyes and leaning back again. "Figures."

Deciding she could not handle more of this kind of conversation Hinata shifted onto her back carefully. "Will you be able to gather the flowers on your own tonight? I would help but with the party being tomorrow Hanabi would be...upset...if I was missing at dinner today."

"The dobe is helping." Sasuke admitted then, watching as Hinata stiffened a little with the information.

"Oh." Somehow the thought of Naruto standing among the peace of her one sanctuary made her hands clench and Sasuke's eyes flickered to those long fingers twisting tightly. The habit was familiar enough in Hina for him to reach out, untangling the knots she was making easily.

"He's meeting me here, I am gathering them alone. He's just taking them with me to your house later. About midnight, you said?"

Hinata stared at their hands on her lap, at the wideness of his palm compared to her own and the set of scars that decorated his skin so different from the tapestry she bore. She realized the impossible image of his hands on her pregnant belly had been wrong on two of those scars, and now that she knew what they looked like up close they would be adjusted the next time it rose to torment her.

Without pushing him away there was nothing to do but leave their hands together, not holding so much as side by side, sharing each other's warmth.

"Y...yes." She said because she was pretty sure he had asked her a question and answering was important although she was not sure what she had agreed to.

"Okay." His hand suddenly withdrew and Hinata pressed her palms to her knees hard to keep them from reaching out.

"I need to get to dinner." She managed, scrambling to her feet tiredly. "I made enough breakfast this morning for tomorrow as well, and the kids know that I will not be coming by, although... Sasu may need reminding."

Sasuke rolled his eyes again. "Of course he will."

"I'll..." she backed up, keeping her eyes down as much as possible. "I'll see you- and the Hokage, later then. I... I'm glad he seems to have calmed down some."

Sasuke frowned then as he thought. "Yes, he said Sakura had told him to. Something he said got her in hot water somehow. I cannot figure out what he's trying to get at but-" Sasuke paused as Hinata finally looked up, wide eyed.

There could only be one thing that got Sakura in hot water that Naruto would have put in her head and that was of course a certain imagined pregnancy.

"What did she do?" Sitting up now he stared and Hinata shook her head.

"N-nothing! I don't know."

"Hinata, you and Hina both, the lying is terrible."

"I've actually become significantly better at it, of late." Hinata defended, grasping at something other than the topic he wished to discuss as she shoved her feet into shoes. "I'm not particularly pleased."

His scoff was more amused than serious and for that she was thankful. "I am going to ask him about it." Sasuke threatened even as she stumbled out the door.

As firmly and carelessly as she could manage Hinata looked at him. "Fine."

He cocked his head, dark hair falling along his face as he assessed her. "Maybe improved your lying. Barely."

She could not remember the last time she had made such a face. Maybe never, but before she could think straight she stuck her tongue out at him to distract herself of the burning on her cheeks and slammed the door.

She missed the wide smirk that overcame him as she rushed all the way back home.

* * *

"And all the lanterns that I asked to be delivered yesterday won't be delivered until tomorrow morning." Hanabi let out a long breath to show her irritation. "That will back everything up by at least an hour, if not more in the morning."

"I can be there for the delivery and for instructing the staff on where they need to go." Hinata soothed, turning to Gaara quickly. "I think perhaps our training will have to be postponed tomorrow, Gaara-kun. That is all right, yes?"

Gaara blinked at her from his place next to Hiashi. "Of course, I can be put to use if you need any assistance."

Hanabi's grin was edging on teasing. "Anywhere my darling Sister is you can be. She's good at keeping you occupied."

Hinata, who had been looking at the diagram of the paper lantern placements for the party glanced up at her, unsure of why the way her sister said such a thing sounded so... wrong, somehow.

Whatever it was must have struck a nerve with Hiashi as well because he cleared his throat and fixed his youngest with a condescending look she sighed at. "No humor in this family." Her mutter was low and hidden behind the rustle of the servants gathering the remnants of dinner to replace with evening tea.

"I wish I knew when Uch-Sasuke-san is going to have the flowers here tomorrow but no mater how many times I ask he never gives me a straight answer." Hanabi mourned, frowning as she looked at her list. This whole party, the entirety of the wedding in fact was being handled much like she would have a mission on the field, had she had much chance to exercise her skills on the field, anyway.

Every member of staff including the servants borrowed from the Hyuuga Branch and hired from town had a job and like a general Hanabi had instructions for them all. It was clear that the planning and the execution would undoubtedly be a pleasure for her, so long as all her pawns moved to her rhythm.

Unlike shinobi however, servants and hired staff had significantly less high stakes and so things were a little bit slower and therefore more infuriating.

"I'm sure he will get them here with plenty of time for you to arrange them exactly as you want." Hinata continued, her calming tones absent minded as she ran over the list of things which she was realizing would be falling to her.

The party was not large, if anything compared to the wedding it was nothing but a small get together. But at 32 guests and with all the perfection that Hanabi required it was still going to take some hard work to have it happen.

There were the lanterns, of various sizes and shapes in white for simplicity's sake. There was also the matter or arranging all the tables and seating beneath the boughs of the soon to be blossoming cherry tree which would be where the wedding was held in a couple weeks hence when the blooms were in their best form.

On top of that there was making sure that the food was in order, that the paper for the crane folding was available and that sake and tea was warmed and prepped in a timely manner. The traditional musicians would need to arrange themselves and their stage in a place both out of the way but also pleasing to the eye, and then there were the flowers.

The mountains of flowers.

Hinata hoped she had not overdone the entire thing. Her instructions to Sasuke had been to nearly decimate the hazelwood of any blooms for the sake of her sister's joy. It was, she realized up to her to make Hanabi tender towards Sasuke because for him to think of something was impossible. The interactions he had with Hanabi were too often when her spitfire personality was at its worst and Hinata had noted with dismay that endearment was still a long ways off.

Perhaps this, however would have Hanabi's softer and more loveable side showing.

Hinata tried not to cross her fingers as she thought.

"You have more faith in him than I do sometimes." Hanabi commented lightly, taking a sip not of tea but sake to calm the nerves threatening to blow to a full headache.

Hinata strained not to grind her teeth.

"I am sure everything will go as planned." Hiashi murmured sternly. "That is enough of that for now. Doing work at the table is hardly how I have raised my daughters."

Thoroughly chastised both the Hyuuga sisters put away their charts and diagrams and lists, Hinata allowing herself a sheepish smile at Gaara who forced himself to keep a straight face even as his green eyes shifted back and forth between the sisters cataloging their various forms of rebellion at their father.

Hanabi frankly stuck her tongue out at him past her sake cup when he looked down and Hinata wrinkled her nose.

Gaara cleared his throat. "Perhaps an early sleep will be the thing to smooth out tomorrow."

"Sleep." Hanabi laughed, moving to stand as he did. "As if I will be sleeping at all with all these things in my head."

"Perhaps more sake." Gaara began and stopped at the look Hiashi threw at him. "Or not."

"Do not encourage her." In Hiashi's opinion Hanabi had had more than enough sake for a week.

"A good spar." Hanabi dared, nodding at him. "Since you will be missing your daily bout tomorrow. Would you come with us, Sister? I want to see how he has improved against a Byakugan with all the practice he has been getting."

"But...what if you are hurt or bruised." Hinata began, shaking her head as she gathered the rest of the papers her sister had brought to the table. "I don't know.."

"Oh come. Sakura can always pass a hand over me if necessary and anyway... I know Gaara to be very gentle." Hanabi continued, looking back at Gaara in time to catch the startle on his face, as if he were for the first time noticing something.

Too busy with the papers in her hands Hinata sighed. "I'm sorry... but I would like to get a good grasp of this. You should go, I will be here when you're back."

Gaara made a move as if to disagree, opening his mouth and reaching towards Hinata only to stop at Hanabi's next words.

"You're not scared of spending a little time sparring with your future sister in law surely, Kazekage-sama."

Igniting both Hinata and Gaara's face into red flame had the desired effect of vanquising Hinata from the room and Hiashi after her, shooting his youngest a glare over his shoulder. In the silence that followed even the servants found reasons to depart, leaving the dimly lit dining room empty but for the two still figures at it's center.

"What are you doing, Hanabi?" Gaara finally murmured, shoulders loose in defeat.

Hanabi shrugged elegantly. "Last time you followed my advice it seemed to work on my sister. Don't you trust me?"

There was nothing particularly trustworthy about the way she surveyed him, although it made him squirm in a way that was not exactly unpleasant and that was the most unnerving thing of all.

* * *

Gathering the flowers was not a difficult task, considering the kinds of tasks he had been set to accomplish from a young age but that did not make it any less grueling.

Back aching in places it had never ached before Sasuke tossed the last of the buckets filled with the blooms onto the steps of his house where now the fragrance of a whole field swept up with the coolness of the night air.

Hands stained in the yellow of the rubbed off pollen and mouth pinched with dislike he stretched, eyeing the two dozen buckets he had managed to haul from the pond all the way back. It had taken a large portion of the evening. He could have made it a simple thing, as many jutsu were in his arsenal to divy up work including the hokage's own favorite shadow clones.

But there was always something about multiplying himself that made him feel hollow as nothing else ever did. In battle or otherwise to see out of the corner of his eye a shape that resembled that of his brother, or father always made something jump in his chest even when the thinking part of him knew well there was no one else.

Just him.

As if to prove him wrong Itachi's voice broke the quiet with a loud, "Wow. You opening up a flower shop?"

"Where have you been?" Sasuke retorted, lowering his stretched arms to his sides with a slap.

Neji frowned at him from among the flower blooms, waving at his brother's shape so solid and real looking beside him. "I'm not involved."

"Coward." Itachi crooned, earning himself a glare to peel paint from the Hyuuga ghost.

"Neither of you have showed up much lately." Sasuke continued, ignoring their banter because it was frankly a little unnerving to see them getting along. "Don't you have a job to do here?"

"We're doing our jobs, don't worry." Itachi smiled then, waving a hand at the flowers. "And it appears you have been doing other people's jobs on top of your own. What is all this?"

"It's...for Hanabi." Sasuke muttered disagreeably, waiting for the teasing to begin. Itachi and Neji neither wanted to disappoint.

"My, my." Neji began, crossing his arms. His smile, Sasuke found, was more irritating than his glare.

"Look at you." Itachi blinked, eyes wide. "You _have_ been working hard."

"No." Sasuke frowned at them both. "No, I'm not going to tolerate this. You were better gone."

The crunch of gravel behind him had him spinning around, in time to hear Naruto's bark of a laugh. "I don't think I ever considered you were the type to talk to yourself." the Hokage called as he approached through the shadows. "Yet this is the second time now I show up and hear you blabbering. You need to get out more." The blonde paused, taking in the sight of all the flowers with wide eyes.

"What the- where did you even-?"

"Long story. Come on, I don't want this to take all night."

"Wow. I mean wow. You know they have florists for this kind of thing, yes?" Naruto began, lifting his hands to the familiar shape of his shadow clone jutsu. "I mean, I guess Hanabi will be happy about it but..."

"Are you going to help?" Sasuke sighed finally, hands full of the buckets. "Or shall I do this myself?"

"I'll help." With a handful of poofs a dozen Narutos materilized from thin air, their overbearing grins drawing a long sigh from Sasuke. "Let's go!"

As the flowers were gathered together and the clones rushed off at a jogging pace that Sasuke disagreed with for the safety of the blooms he glanced back, in time to see Itachi waving from the house roof before disappearing within to keep watch over the sleeping children.

"Well, she can't say you're not involved now, that's for sure." Naruto admitted, glancing sideways at the silent shadow that followed at his side. "You've been working all night haven't you." It was not a question and so Sasuke did not bother answering.

Instead he drew a breath. "What was it that Sakura did? To make you believe me?" He turned, pinning his best friend with the unshakable black of the Uchiha stare. Naruto blanched, shoulders to his ears in dislike. "Argh, let's not talk about that. I said I trusted you, and look...you're showing...improvement of a sort."

The frown that came over Sasuke's face was most displeased and earned a nervous laugh from the Hokage.

"All right, all right, just...I'm sorry, okay. But you were acting so weird and..." He let out a breath. "And I know you Sasuke, maybe it was just a passing thing, which I didn't think you were capable of, but you had _something_ for Hinata..."

"Ugh." Sasuke grumbled, averting his eyes to keep himself from picturing Naruto's face as a target.

"No, I know. Okay, I know but... Sakura had been telling me she was worried about Hinata too. You don't get it. We have been worried about her for a long time. Ever since I...well, whatever, ever since the war ended and she just wasn't getting better."

Sasuke listened intently then, watching his steps as he put this all together.

"Anyway, the point is between Sakura noticing that Hinata was not herself and then her father reaching out to Tsunade to say he was worried about her health and then me...you know... venting about you and what I thought..."

Sasuke stopped, staring at him.

Naruto winced slightly as he looked back. "It's possible Sakura asked Hinata if she was pregnant."

It took a moment, even though his brain assessed the information in seconds and tore it apart. He could picture Hinata, with her eyes wide and her mouth parted open in shock at the question and all that it implied.

About her, about him, about them and what a rumor of that sort could do to her sister...

To her whole family.

But also, hidden beneath all this truth, all these layers of fact and logic was a thought feral and raw that he had purposefully never picked up and which now felt thrust upon him without his choice being part of the equation.

It was a flash of Hinata's pale neck stretched as she arched, the grooves of her collarbone shadowed as her hands gripped sheets in fistfuls and her hair like ink spilled along the paleness of her shoulders where his mouth explored, burning where it made contact with the freckles on her skin.

He nearly dropped the flowers.

"I'm sorry." Naruto began, thinking he was aiming to put the buckets down to pummel him. Probably it was what he should have been doing though instead Sasuke was straining to stay still, shoving into his head dozens of jutsu he had memorized, hundreds of hand seals in rapid succession, one after the other with the name whispered under his breath which he had wrangled into not speeding to a gasping pant.

"Listen." Naruto continued nervously. "I'm really sorry. Sakura has been so apologetic and I promise that it went from me to her and her to me, the only other person who has heard this stupidity is Hinata and she wouldn't mention it to anyone. She... probably didn't even realize it was you we meant. "

Blinking hard to focus on what the blonde before him was saying Sasuke drew a long breath, studying his face with an intensity that was unnerving.

"Just shut up and help me get this over with." He finally managed, jaw working as he continued on. "I'll be dealing with you later."

Naruto sighed, a little forlorn at the idea of a vengeful Sasuke out to get him but with nothing to say in his own defense. "Yeah, all right."

* * *

 ** _I haven't written a story with such a loose understanding in... oh I don't know._**

 ** _Forever._**

 ** _Thank you to all the reviews and messages they are so so sweet and really help get me going._**

 ** _Also if you are looking for more of my random sasuhina stuff on tumblr at delightfulharmonypoetry you can search the tag Sasuhina which is where most of my stuff will show up. I should probably tag it better but I just throw things out there like t-shirts at a concert sometimes, there's NO sense of consistency I'm sorry._**

 ** _Much, much love  
Inky_**


	14. Chapter 14

It occured to Gaara much too late that Hiashi was not being an overprotective father when he shut down any notion of Hanabi having more sake.

No, he had been a logical human being who knew what mild inebriation looked like, versus the full fledged thing.

Gaara had rarely felt so foolish.

"Hanabi, no."

All the joints already so languid and elegant on the younger Hyuuga were now well oiled loose things as she stretched her neck, eyes closed and hands shaken out at her sides before bouncing twice on the balls of her feet and winking in his direction.

"Don't be silly, you said you would spar."

"I did not realize your intoxication level. Sparring with you like this would be irresponsible." Gaara shook his head, stepping back as she approached from the sidelines.

The night had claimed the training grounds and he strained in the shadows to see her clearly knowing with a level of distrust that she had the advantage thanks to her kekkei genkai. Although that only made her drunkenness slightly more dangerous for him, if not for her.

"I'm not intoxicated." She sounded believable but that didn't change the fact that he had seen her trip on the walk to the grounds. A thing he had yet to witness on any Hyuuga ever. And added with the sweetness of her breath and the lubricated ease of her joints he had to say she was at least half way.

Enough to have some hesitations, among the others he had already allotted.

"You are not sober, which is the bigger issue." He responded, snatching his body back sharply at the sudden flash of chakra in the darkness that flared with her hands.

Wide eyed now and realizing they were past a calm discussion he slid his stance to even the weight on his feet and lowered his center of gravity as he watched her sizing him up.

"Hanabi."

"You need to not call me that, I think." Hanabi mused delicately, half a whisper half a song before she launched forward again, jabbing at his shoulder too roughly to land a blow. Easy as dodging a doorway he sidestepped again, and then realized his mistake.

Intoxication did not slow the Hyuuga, just made their aim a little less true.

Her kick came out of nowhere, too late to dodge and too fast to absorb. Blocking with his forearm shot a ringing bell like curve of pain through his arm. Pain was not a thing he fared well with. Too long he had gone through life never being touched let alone damaged, and his skin which on most shinobi would have been toughened by their life was still unaccustomed to the shock.

The grunt left his mouth despite his best intentions and Hanabi fed off it. Teeth gritting she spun to drive her elbow in while his arms were occupied, startled when he took the blow to the palm and dragged her through, unsettling her already wobbly balance and sending her to the floor.

Her cry was almost comedic, half laugh half surprise only for her to choke on it at the last moment. Feeling his arm sling around her waist to catch her from smacking into the ground.

"Ah." She sighed, hanging limp though she could, if she wanted to, kick his leg out from under him where she rested. "Those morning fights with my sister have been helping."

"Doubtful." Gaara grunted, pulling her up despite her dead weight. "You're hardly at your best right now."

"Why do you do that?" There was no more half laugh. As abruptly as her attack had begun so then did the mirth leave. Straightening in his arms Hanabi fixed her glowing pale eyes on him, luminous as a cat in the starlight and just as mesmerizing.

Frowning slightly Gaara blinked back at her. "What is it you mean?"

"That thing you do...where you say nice things about me." Hanabi blinked slowly back, copying without realizing his own baffled expression. "Why do you do that?"

"Hanabi." It was so softly said, so pitingly that she frowned, sparks seeming to fire in her eyes like fireworks.

"Don't do that." She muttered, shoving away much more roughly than she intended and realizing abruptly that perhaps she was indeed a little bit drunk. "Don't sound so... sorry."

"I'm not sorry." Gaara sighed, reaching for her half blind in the dark at the sound of a stumble. "You're... you're being silly."

Hanabi's wrinkled nose appeared abruptly right before his own as he finally managed to scoop her up off the ground where she had sank to her knees to save herself from falling. "Silly? What are you, five?"

"Five years older than you at least." He grumbled, tucking his other hand under her knees and heaving her up with a sigh. "We should never have come, I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know what you were thinking. The only one with a clear head was your sister."

For a moment Hanabi said nothing, allowing him to walk them back to where she had tossed her bag of training gear in silence until he was moving to put her down.

"Do you think my sister has a clear head all the time? Or is she occasionally also a mess like me?"

Gaara paused, catching Hanabi's expression in the dim light of a finally present moon peeking past clouds. "Hanabi, you are not a mess."

"You don't know that. How would you know that?" Hanabi whispered, because to speak more loudly might betray that her voice was shaking and her eyes filling with tears. There was no hiding the flood on her gaze however, not with the light to make it glow.

Slowly, as carefully as he could Gaara lowered himself down to the ground with her still in his arms. "Hanabi, what is the matter?"

"Maybe I am a little drunk." She admitted, rubbing at her face with the heel of her palm and succeeding only in smudging tears across her cheek.

"I think perhaps a little."

"Stop that. You're... you're always..." Hanabi frowned deeply, "...always giving me these outs. No one gives me outs, they just tolerate me and I'm... I just..." She sucked in a breath, picturing Sasuke with his pursed lips, his frown at something she had said.

"I'm taking you home." Gaara murmured, mostly to himself as he moved to stand back up. "You're not feeling okay."

"Uchiha-san doesn't call me Hanabi." Her whisper stayed his limbs, drew his green eyes back down to study her face now turned to the glittering remnant of tears on the tips of her fingers. "Uchiha-san disappears when my home catches fire at a dinner party and doesn't bother explaining where he went."

It surprised him, the ferocity of the feeling that rose in his chest. Tightening his hold and causing his teeth to clench. With a muscle in his jaw working he let out a long breath. "Please, do not take this the wrong way."

"I probably will." Hanabi disagreed amiably as she smudged more tears across her face.

"Sasuke Uchiha is an idiot."

Her snort of amusement was not what he had expected but at least it had not been a slap so he took it in stride. Allowing himself a tiny turn of his lips as she eyed him warily.

"I'm no ray of sunshine, Gaara."

"No." He admitted, finally rising from his place on the ground. "Few of us are."

The wariness on her face smoothed away, a skill which he had learned young and recognized easily as the neat tucking away of one's heart.

"My sister is though."

She had not been so careful, in the dining room when her lips had formed his title, rather than his name. _Kazekage-sama_ she had said and it had shot a bolt of lighting through down to his toes and the ends of his blood red hair. There had been threat and intent and _want_ in those few syllables, disguised in the rudeness of the sentence that came before it.

He would have needed to be dead not to take that like a blow from a rasengan. Especially from a thing as beautiful and unnerving as Hanabi was. Precious and small she could burst into brilliant sparkles with nothing but a smile, as capable of lighting up the darkness as she was of taking off a limb with the explosion of who she was.

Still, beautiful though her spark burned, it was a ray of sunshine he had come for.

"Yes." He agreed, keeping his eyes away from her so that she had the privacy to compose her expression and remain unashamedly herself.

Clearing her throat Hanabi allowed herself the luxury of resting her head on his shoulder and letting the soothing rhythm of his walk soften the tension across her forehead.

"Lucky you, then."

To this he did not have to agree out loud.

* * *

She had had every intention of welcoming them back home after their spar. Thoughts of making tea in the empty kitchen for them had drifted through her brain. Maybe she would even whip up something to go with, a cookie perhaps. Although, she was not sure if Gaara liked sweets.

If it had been Sasuke she would have known to make rice balls but with Gaara...

That was up until Hanabi had made the terrible statement about sister-in-laws and the insinuation that came with it. After that there had been only one thought in her head.

Get under the covers.

Through her bedroom door her father had called, asking her to be patient with her sister. Telling her that there was nothing to be ashamed of. Assuring her that everything would be fine in the morning, until finally at the silence that replied he had bid good night.

She heard down the hall as they returned. Their muffled words and steps and even a stumble that made her worry for a moment that perhaps Hanabi had indeed hurt herself. From beneath her blankets she paid close attention, curled tightly as Gaara's soft voice spoke at length down the hall before Hanabi replied, a soft short answer that preceded the door to her bedroom closing quietly.

The knock on Hinata's own door shortly after was not unexpected. She had until the sound broke the stillness been holding her breath beneath her blankets as she waited. Once it happened however there was no answering it, and she knew this. Knew it like she knew her name and the color of her own hair. There would be no opening that door, not while her anger still flared at her sister and her stomach writhed with embarrassment within her.

Gaara waited but did not call through the barrier like her father had and shortly after she heard his quiet nearly noiseless steps, confirmed by a flash of her Byakugan in the dark.

After that there was only silence and her thoughts.

Ugly and shudder inducing the feeling that had rendered her mute in the dining room bubbled to the surface of her mind. Feelings were often like this for her. Tangled, they twisted around each other and one could not be felt without the other. In this way being proud of herself often came hand in hand with embarrassment, with fear, with self deprecation.

The words Hanabi had spoken had rolled a ball of feelings into such a tangle that even after they returned Hinata chewed on her lip beneath her blanket and only then began to take the mess apart.

Bit by bit she pulled and unwound, blinking in the dark of her blanket cave as she thought. Hanabi's words had been partly in jest, she was sure. It would be like Hanabi to say something that was awkward but think it a joke.

It was not the joke that hurt however, but the fact Hanabi, who knew how she felt about insinuating marriage, had dared to do so despite her explicit request she refrain. Joke or not it brought the topic which Hinata had so carefully avoided to a head where she had not anticipated it and was not prepared.

On the other hand Gaara might have been hurt by her reaction, and this pierced worst of all. It was not his fault that she was so flighty at the mention of the upcoming betrothal, a thing which was clear had been discussed between her father and Gaara, herself and her father and now only needed to be broached by the two operating members of the nuptials.

And there was the last spiky bit of knot, twisted fiercely among everything else. There was no doubt that Hinata cared for Gaara deeply, might in fact love him in some way. The thought of hurting him made her sick. His kindness and patience with her could not be ignored and it both shamed her and warmed her that her friend had the kind of heart to be so gentle, exactly as she had always thought he would be.

But if she loved him then, and he loved her... why was the wager not over?

Untangling this knot was going to make her bleed.

Shoving the thoughts aside as she had learned to do so expertly Hinata kicked off her blankets, glancing at the clock on her nightstand through the dark to catch the time only to freeze in surprise and horror.

No sooner had her eyes widened and her heart jumped to sprinting than the knock on her window startled her around. It was not so much a knock as the clink of a kunai through the bars that Sasuke fitted with ease, undoing the latch and dropping himself silently in before closing the windows.

"T-that's not okay that you can do that." Hinata stammered, sheepish and guilty and a whole new ball of tangled feelings to unknot later.

"You know what else isn't okay?" Sasuke replied nonchalantly as he popped the latch back into place. "You not being downstairs for those flowers when you said you would be."

Burying her face into her hands was something she rarely did, but hiding under the covers and not answering knocks on doors were also things she had thought she had outgrown. Clearly the night was proving to be a steps backwards kind of evening.

"Sasuke...I'm so very sorry..."

"It's fine."

"No, I said...I said I would be there and then I just-"

"Were you sleeping?" He scanned her up and down, more easily done with her face buried in her hands and her keen eyes not so fixed on his face. "You don't look it."

"I was not. I was..." she paused, purposefully not looking at the unmade bed and the little nook she had made for herself beneath the covers. "...I was..Hanabi is... she was just being a bit of a handful and I just..." she cleared her throat. "I was dealing with that."

This was not surprising to him, evidenced by the gruff noise he made in his throat before glancing back at the window. "Naruto is gone, we left the flowers lining the engawa along the dining room. I just wanted to-" He stopped himself, realizing abruptly that he did not want to say the rest of that sentence. Mostly it consisted of him wanting to see her again, and that was not okay to voice.

"I wanted to make sure you were all right." He reconstructed. "

"I'm fine." Hinata nodded again, moving to her closet in the dark in search of her sleeping yukata. "Please, I'm so very sorry still. Are the children all right? Were they a handful after I left?"

Shaking his head Sasuke moved to lean by her closet doors, arms crossed as he watched her rummaging about inside. "No, Itachi and Neji appeared for baby sitting duties."

"Oh, good."

"Hm."

"Well, I suppose then-" Hinata began then stiffened, eyes snapping sharply to her bedroom door where the knob was turning slowly. Standing now so close she could feel Sasuke's breath on the soft curve of her ear they watched as the knob continued twisting.

"Is that Gaara?" His whisper heated the skin along her neck, setting her aquiver like a feather caught by a breeze. Snapping her head to look at him she frowned, drawing on all of her annoyance of the evening to manage an indignant tone despite the whisper.

"He's not allowed in my room!"

It seemed impossible somehow but in his eyes the darkness like the sky popped suddenly with stars, dancing bemusedly before her, his mouth quirking up in a little smirk.

"But I am?"

Eyes widening just as impossibly as his danced Hinata let out a breath. "N-no! In fact if someone finds you in here that's it for the both of us. " And perhaps it was the urgency of the matter or perhaps it was to simply get rid of his dancing eyes on her superheated face. Without any further ado she pushed him into her closet and shut the door.

Just in time for Hanabi to tuck her head in past her door frame. "Hinata?"

To muffle what might have been a dark amused chuckle from her closet Hinata cleared her throat and rushed forward, blinking hard to dispel the sheer disbelief that was lingering over her face. "Hanabi?"

"Oh, there you are." Her sibling said, no longer whispering. With a slam of the door she walked in past her elder sister to the lamp on Hinata's desk, flicking it on tiredly.

Still frozen by the door Hinata dragged in a breath to calm herself then turned, clasping her hands neatly in front of her.

"Sister, it's so late. You should be sleeping. It's a big day tomorrow."

"You don't get to say that until the day before the wedding." Hanabi scolded softly, tracing the lines of the lamp setting everything to a warm soothing glow. "That's the big day, very technically."

Hinata closed her eyes, long past patience but without much other recourse. "All right. It is still rather an important day."

"Seems silly," she interrupted, walking to Hinata's futon before flopping onto it on her back like falling onto snow. "To not use the day for you and Gaara as well."

It was a physical sensation, bristling with annoyance. It was the tightening of shoulders and back, the clenching of her teeth, the narrowing of her eyes.

"Hanabi, I thought I said I did not want you mentioning anything about-"

"I know what you said but you're being an idiot." Hanabi reported flatly, her words slurring just the slightest bit as she spoke. Hinata had a momentary lapse in her frustration. Wide eyed she stared.

"Are...are you drunk?"

"No."

Hanabi thought for a moment, studying the shadows cast by the windows on the high ceilings of her sister's immaculate room. "Maybe just a little. Not a lot."

"Oh, Hanabi." Sighing deeply Hinata pressed a palm to her forehead.

"Don't. I'm fine. I will drink water before I go to sleep. I will be fine in the morrow."

"You're not a morning person as it is-"

"Who is a morning person though, Sister? Besides you, I mean. Ray of sunshine, indeed." Gesticulating aggressively from her place on the futon did not seem to be helping her point get across. Instead Hinata wandered slowly over, sitting at first and then at the tug of her sister's hand she lay down beside her. Purposefully she kept her eyes averted from the closet.

"I'm not sure what you mean." Hinata admitted softly, brushing back the locks of brown hair that Hanabi had thrown about her face in her wild hand waving.

"Honestly, I'm not sure I know what I mean." Hanabi confessed. "Most of the time."

Hinata's scoff was uncommon enough to draw even a mildly intoxicated girl's attention. "You know more about what you want and what you mean than anybody I know." Hinata laughed softly, pressing a finger to her Sister's nose. "I wish I was as decisive as you."

"I just fake it." Hanabi retorted, going slightly cross eyed for a moment as she tried to look at her sister's finger on her nose before she removed it. "I mean, take this whole wedding."

Hinata sat up then, no more humor left on her face as she studied her little sister. "What?"

"Well, please. Don't tell me you haven't had reservations about Uchih- damn it. Sasuke. I need to just get over that whole last name thing."

Wincing at the foul language Hinata rubbed at her arms uncertainly. "Reservations? No, what kind do you mean?"

"Oh, you think he's great?" Hanabi asked, brows raised and tone bright with mild disbelief. Hinata blinked at her slowly, painfully aware of the closet at her back.

"D...do...don't you?"

Her sister shoved herself up onto her elbows, brows furrowed now as she surveyed her sister shrewdly. "I...sometimes, I suppose I do. He seemed fine, up until recently."

Making sure her face was smooth Hinata swallowed. "Recently?"

 _Oh gods, of course as soon as I try to help I make things worse._

"I just...since Gaara showed up." Hanabi frowned, eyes flashing to Hinata nervously only to find a calm wide eyed face looking back. "I guess.. I just... They're very different."

"Yes." Hinata could agree with this and did so readily. "They are quite."

Hanabi opened her mouth, as though to say more and Hinata in turn waited expectantly. "I am not sure what I'm trying to say." she laughed finally, flopping back onto the futon. "At least they are both _painfully_ handsome."

A lot of blinking was happening on the elder Hyuuga's face. "Uh." She hummed. "I...I suppose.."

"Oh please." Hanabi sighed, covering her eyes with her palms like she was trying to squash them. "Don't do that. Don't be all prudey. I'm not going to tell anyone and anyway it's so obvious."

Hinata flinched visibly, in time for Hanabi to catch it with one quirked brow. "See! I knew it. You do think Uchi-Sasuke (gods why is this so hard?) is attractive. Look at your face. It's all right. I don't mind."

"I...I... I am not saying-" Hinata floundered, unable despite her best intentions to stand and usher Hanabi to the door.

"Listen." Hanabi shook her head. "It's fine. I sometimes just want to bite Gaara's lip, all right? They are pieces of art on legs."

Hinata buried her face in her hands and promptly pressed the whole hot mess to her knees. "Hanabi!" she cried, although it came out sounding rather muffled.

"Don't tell me you didn't consider how it might have been you marrying Uchiha-san. Oh forget it, I'm probably going to call him Uchiha-san even when I'm old and barren."

Hinata did not reply, cocooned as she was in her hands and knees.

"I will admit, part of the appeal of the marriage in the first place was...well... _the_ appeal." Hanabi sighed, allowing herself a smile at the sight of her elder sister balled up tight. "Oh Hinata. Come on. One thing, admit to one thing and I will stop listing delightful aspects about my fiance."

"Oh, Hanabi, _no_. I beg you."

"He does have some amazing abs. You probably don't know, but I've felt them when we have stood close together and I just about gasped."

"H... _Hanabi_."

"Also, I haven't felt this but I have noticed when I'm walking behind him-"

"He has a nice mouth." Hinata finally gasped, flinging herself to her feet and with an iron grip hauled her sister back up. "You have to sleep, I have to sleep. We all have to sleep. Please, Hanabi I'm-"

"All right, all right." Smirking widely Hanabi wandered with her to the door, pausing at the threshold even as Hinata tried to close it.

"Hey, just wait, listen."

"I...I don't want to hear anymore about Sasuke's eyes." Hinata fumbled, rubbing at her brow impatiently.

Hanabi made a face, scrunched up half amused half confused. "His eyes? I never said anything about- no, I meant I... I just wanted to say that I am sorry."

Surprise bloomed on Hinata then, erasing for the moment the blush and the nerves. Leaving only her eyes sweeping over her little sister's face, taking her in for the first time that evening.

Circles lined Hanabi's eyelids, tiredness clung to her mouth and skin. Something that sparkled when she smiled was gone, as was the smile and Hinata placed a hand under her chin.

"You are sad. Oh... Hanabi, I am so sorry. Don't be sad."

"I'm not sad." Hanabi shook her head in a way that was not to be believed. "I was apologizing, let me. You always win the apologizing game. Let me win. It's my wedding."

Biting her lip to quiet herself Hinata waited.

"I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable earlier, not here in the room." She clarified lazily with a wave of her hand. "Downstairs."

Smiling weakly Hinata nodded. "Okay."

"I'm... I'm also sorry because..." Hanabi frowned, no longer able to meet her eyes. "I'm a little envious."

Confused, Hinata frowned as well. "What?"

"Gaara is...he's so kind, and he just adores you." Swallowing thickly she forced a smile and looked back up. "And I'm glad for that. I'm glad he adores you. You deserve to be adored, I just...I suppose I just wish someone adored me too."

Without hesitation Hinata dragged her into her embrace, squeezing her hard enough to smell the perfume of her skin, her shampoo and the lingering touch of the night still on her clothes.

"Hanabi, I promise I am not just spouting words to calm your fears, but Sasuke...He will surprise you. He can, if you let him. Just...let him try. What if he knocks you off your feet? What if he gets your knees wobbly and your heart bursting?"

Hanabi's laugh was muffled by her vice grip. "What if...? I... I don't know."

"Just... try." Hinata whispered, planting a hard kiss to her sister's cheek. "Just try."

Shrugging inelegantly Hanabi drew back. "We'll see." Placing her own much more tender kiss on her sister's cheek she smiled again through her tears and wandered back down the hall.

Hinata watched until she was in her room before stepping inside her own and closing the door with her back, pressing her shoulder blades hard against the wood as she thought.

The creak of the closet opening finally drew her attention and Sasuke stepped slowly out, biting so viciously on his cheek she could have seen it in the dark without byakugan.

The silence stretched long and Hinata swallowed, loud enough to hear.

"That was a lot." Sasuke offered finally, sheepishly. "I'm sorry that I intruded."

"...I don't think it really changed the trajectory." Hinata managed after a long breath. "Hanabi...is Hanabi."

Softly, and without meeting her eyes he sighed, "She's... sweeter than I thought."

Smiling ruefully now Hinata pinched the bridge of her nose. "And a little spicy."

"I'm sorry."

It was not often that Hinata was on the receiving end of so many apologies. Searching his face hesitantly she waited.

"I'm sorry that I never tried. She deserved an attempt, if nothing else." Meeting her gaze finally he cleared his throat. "I'm going to go."

It did not seem rude when Hinata whispered a faint "Please."

Unlatching the window and climbing out he waited until she was at the glass ready to close it back up before allowing his mouth to utter her name. "Hinata..."

Frozen with him so high above she waited, clinging to the metal of the window pane in her hands as he crouched slowly before her until they were eye to eye.

Words, many jumbled words lingered on his tongue. They were heavy so that the pulse of his blood seemed almost painful through his mouth. Holding perfectly still like a doe with a predators scent Hinata stared, until her eyes so luminous in the moonlight flicked visibly to his lips and back exploding blood in a pink sheen across her face.

Breath suddenly caught like a kunai to the ribs he stood. "N...never mind, good night." And he was gone, disturbing only the leaves that clung to her windowsill and the heart threatening to burst in her chest.

* * *

Waking was an adventure he had under appreciated before living with children. Eyes closed and face half buried in the sheets he thought about the sensation that was working it's way up and down his forearm and wondered briefly what it was, attempting to guess before opening one eye.

Hina lay close, nearly nose to nose with him on the white of his sheets. With a smile that rounded her cheeks she giggled, moving the feather she had pilfered from a pillow along his arm carefully.

His smile in reply was immediate and unconscious, despite the weary way he rubbed at his face. "Good morning."

Blowing softly on the feather set the little bit of fluff dancing on the sweet breeze of her baby breath.

"Sasu-kun is sad." Hina whispered into his ear, leaving heat and the tickle of her dark hair on his skin.

Frowning slightly Sasuke sat up, inspecting the room to find it empty of the aforementioned Sasu. Hina sat up, her smile disappearing at the tension's appearance on his features. "Where is he?"

"Kitchen." Hina offered calmly, pink mouth now downturned as she slid backwards on her tummy off the bed, landing with a thump onto the ground.

Realizing what the problem was Sasuke sighed, shoving himself to his feet with a wince as his back dared a complaint about the work he had done through the late evening.

"Sasu?" Sasuke peered down the stairs where the curtains still blocked the sunlight from streaming in and the shutters remained closed against the chirping of the birds. The quiet was strangely unnerving and at the very bottom step Hina sat with her knees to her chest and her arms wrapped around them in a familiar way Hinata did when thinking.

Across from her, hiding in the shadow of the bannister sat Sasu. Shoulders drooping and head in his hands. Among them the dust motes drifted through the pale early light, glinting silver and bright as sparkles through the air that Hina watched intently before focusing once more on Sasu's silent shape.

Blowing out a breath that ruffled his hair Sasuke lowered himself down on the step above them, daring a hand to Sasu's dark head which, surprisingly he did not smack away.

"Sasu." Sasuke cleared his throat softly. "Sasu, Hinata told you she would not be here today, did she not?"

Sasu's weary shoulders shrugged a reply.

"She will be here tomorrow, as always." He mused. "She left breakfast, and later we will go to the pond."

Still without moving Sasu remained slumped, even when Hina scooched forward. Gripping his knees in her palms, staring intently into the shadowed darkness made by his long tresses.

"All right." Sasuke finally sighed when Hina's worried stare lifted to him in question. "I'm going to get breakfast ready. We will give you a few minutes alone." Scooping Hina up in one go he began the waking of the house. Opening curtains, turning the oven on, rummaging through the fridge and setting out dishes with Hina's clumsy help clattering cutlery on the table.

It was not until Hina was seated, a cinnamon bun specifically labelled with her name set before her that Sasuke made his way back to the stairs. Sasu remained unmoving although now he could hear, as he had not heard before the soft sniffs of a sob half hidden.

Startled now by this turn Sasuke settled down next to his own past, studying Sasu's shape for a moment longer before deciding to pull him firmly into his lap. There was no resistance to the touch, no hesitation as he curled small in his grip. It was hard to remember once being so fragile, delicately boned and easily broken. As new and unmarked as a baby bird, Sasu was a thing he could hardly fathom being, and would have not long ago said he despised.

He was starting to realize as he rubbed the little boy's back, that this was not so.

"Sasu, what is the matter? Tell me."

If anything this instilled a stronger sob to wrankle through the little frame in his grip but as Sasu wrapped his arms around his neck he heard, wet and wobbly as a flower pelted by rain Sasu's lament.

"She... she's not here... Big Hinata is not here because... because she has another family, yes? Another home."

Unable to breathe Sasuke stared past the little boy's shoulder, eyes unseeing as he listened.

"Hina...Hina won't be with me, when we're big."

Overcome then by the truth he was absorbing Sasu's voice broke, his tears hot against Sasuke's neck where he pressed his face hard as if to disappear.

"I'm going to be alone."

* * *

Considering that she had been the sober and clear headed of the Hyuuga Sisters, Hinata had to admit she was rather the worse for wear.

Hanabi breezed cheerfully into the breakfast room in a simple yukata of spring blue, hair knotted elegantly at her neck and sleeves rolled up looking dewy soft and rested. Ready, it would appear, to take on the world.

"Good morning!" She nearly sang, sinking to her knees at the table where Hiashi, Hinata and Gaara were already sipping at their tea.

Hinata by contrast was a pale thing made of fog and moonlight. Sleep had evaded her with a dogged determination she had not experienced in weeks. Warily she had given up after the first tendrils of light began to shine in the squares of her windows where her eyes had remained most of the night.

The shower she had taken had done some of the work of making her look rested. At least she had had the chance to scrub herself pink and raw and after scalding herself with hot water shocked herself awake with the freezing touch of cold.

Still, she was disheartened to hear first thing after sitting at the table, both her Father and Gaara asking if she was feeling all right.

Evidently, there was no alternative to sleep.

"Good morning." Hinata murmured with everyone in response to Hanabi's entrance and with a nod instructed the servants sitting at the back of the room to remove the sliding doors separating them from the engawa and garden.

"So, what is the first thing? Have the lanterns been delivered?" Hanabi began, settling beside her sister comfortably before startling herself to stillness at the sight and sudden fragrance of hundreds of cut purple blooms.

"What...what is this?" She began slowly, blinking rapidly. They were everywhere. Tall bunches with stems nearly a meter high, shorter more delicate looking ones, all in glistening glass vases the servants had had the foresight to switch them to without being asked.

Hinata sipped her tea, allowing Hanabi to bask in the sweetness of the perfume the blooms wafted through the now open view into their breakfast room.

"Those are the flowers from Uchiha-san?" Hiashi finally dared, looking back and forth between his stunned youngest and the quiet face of his oldest.

"W-when did he even...? Is he here?" Hanabi turned to the door as if expecting him to come in.

"No." Hinata shook her head finally. "I don't believe so. They were delivered sometime in the night. The servants said they were here when they woke up."

Hanabi whipped her head around to look at Hinata then, eyes wide as she remembered the fierce grip her sister had had on her as she whispered urgently.

 _"What if...?"_

"They're wild." Gaara commented softly, standing to touch an elegant curling petal. "He must have gathered them himself."

Hanabi's disgruntled sound was something tangled between disbelief and hysteria. "Surely not. Surely... "

"No florist I know delivers in the middle of the night." Hinata attempted a shrug, looking awkward despite herself.

Hiashi finally smiled, wide and perhaps a little unnerving considering the usual stoic stillness of his face so that both his daughters stared at him with varying levels of wariness.

"What a pity." He began and then a chuckle escaped him that soon turned into a full on laugh. "What a pity that a mirror is not hung here." He patted his knee then, gasping for breath as his laughter overtook him, stunning his daughters to gaping.

"You should have seen your face!"

Gaara was the first to crack and let out a laugh in response, and then before Hinata knew what she was doing she had joined in. And then there was only Hanabi looking flabbergasted as everyone, servants included was taken up in the wave of Lord Hiashi's laughter.

Red in the face with his belly laugh their Father rose from the table, walking over to where his youngest still sat with a confounded expression on her face before taking her cheeks in his weathered hands and placing a kiss on her forehead.

"Perhaps it is this you need my child." He chuckled more weakly as his laughter ebbed away. "Someone who keeps you on your toes."

* * *

There had been no use in the day. Hina, affected by Sasu's melancholy ended up splayed beside him wherever he ended up. On a couch, on the floor, on the unkempt grass of the courtyard.

Sasuke watched this, distracted from the work he was supposed to be accomplishing for Naruto throughout the day from home by the strange dynamic he was witnessing. Never had he thought he would be disgruntled by Sasu exercising his right for space.

Moving quietly and without much explanation, every time the little boy pulled himself together only to flop in a pile somewhere away from the warm and snoozing bundle that Hina made of herself at his side. Like clockwork she would wake, shivering when the warmth of his body left her and after looking around in a panic for him she would nestle once more at his skin.

Sasuke expected an eventual breakdown of this pattern. Tears from Hina at the constant relentless rejection, or a flare of frustrated temper from Sasu at being followed but neither came. Neither accepted lunch, they barely nibbled at dinner and as the light began to wane Sasuke began to fidget.

How was he supposed to leave them this way?

It made him realize the depth of his growing worry when the appearance of Neji and Itachi drew a sigh of relief from his chest that he could not hide, causing both spirits to raise their brows.

"They're not okay." He stated in reply, motioning to the bed where he had attempted to tuck the children in after dinner.

Usually bundled like knotted roots, Sasu now faced away curled tightly. Although Hina pressed her forehead to the back of his neck the lack of cohesion was too obvious not to see.

Softly, breathless with the despair before him Itachi shuddered, recognizing the pain. "What happened?"

Sasuke's lack of reply had the spirits turning back to him, eyes searching for answers on his tense face. Unable to voice the reasoning behind the sudden break he shook his head, avoiding eye contact.

"I don't know."

They followed as he made his way downstairs, ignoring their silent demands until the front door opened to the bright orange hues of the coming dusk. Hanabi had chosen the timing of the party specifically so that the arrival of the guests would be shrouded in the gold of the evening sun. More than once she had stated her need for him to be at the Hyuuga Compound before sunset and yet he hesitated, hand tight on the doorframe as he thought.

"Sasuke." Itachi whispered. "Sasuke, what has changed him?"

Without looking back at his brother he let out a long breath.

"Nothing. He just... grew up."

* * *

Hinata had to keep reminding herself that she was supposed to be happy. It was a difficult task, one that involved a lot of checking herself in the reflection of the still water of the garden pond to make sure her features were pristine, and if not smiling then at the very least placid.

Hanabi was the star of the show. Energized by the fragrant purple blooms that were scattered throughout the clearing beneath the cherry blossom tree. Leading from the engawa into the house made the grassy clearing feel smaller and more intimate even before the lanterns were lit.

Guests had been arriving in handfuls. First was the aunts and uncles of the branch family. The cousins and second cousins whose names Hinata tried to remember but who she found were still wary of her and her sister in a way that stung with Neji's memory.

Then there were most of those she had attended the academy with. Tenten and Lee and Gai-sensei accompanied by Tsunade and a very amused Kakashi.

Guided by the servants available at every corner the guests were led from the foyer of the Hyuuga house through to the dining room which was opened to the garden. Lacquered tables had been placed strategically along the grass and low growing moss dotted in tiny blue flowers. Tatami mats were spread beneath and on top cushions had been placed to designate seating.

Above, the branches of the cherry blossom tree swayed and creaked a song as gentle as the traditional shamisen being played by the hired entertainment sitting discreetly aside.

Decked in one of their mother's most beautiful kimono Hanabi shone. She was a thing made of gold light as the sun. Long sleeves embroidered in golden thread sparked with the red of luck and the white of mourning for her mother's lack on the special day. She moved as though part of the garden. Perhaps she was a deity herself. Hinata thought waspishly that if Lady Ama proved to be Hanabi she might not be entirely surprised.

"Did you sleep at all?"

A hand came warm and gentle to the small of her back, broad beneath the simple obi that cinched her waist. Unlike her sister she had chosen simplicity. With her hair carefully knotted at the nape of her neck and her kimono a calm lavender hue layered in whites and grays she thought she would easily meld into the background, giving her sister the room she needed to shine.

Gaara however seemed to think otherwise. Green eyes brilliant in the dusk light he had had to shut his mouth with a click of his teeth as she came in after her sister.

The servants had let out breaths of surprise at the sight of Hanabi for though she often wandered the halls bedecked as an empress there was joy in her face on that night and it was that along with all the other parts of her blood that reminded them of her mother who once too had ruled the house.

While they oohed and aahed after her, Hinata had been easily spotted slinking as quietly as she could around the side of the garden. Checking that all the lanterns were properly filled with oil and wicks for soon the sun would set and the servants would be required to light them quickly.

"I'm afraid not." She admitted as he studied her face, restraining the urge to keep moving. It was nice, if she was honest, having someone notice her tiredness, and care enough to voice concern.

Gaara sighed. "I thought not. You have been working hard all day."

"But that means I will have a good rest tonight, surely." Hinata smiled. "So perhaps it is a blessing."

" _You_ are a blessing." He replied easily, smoothing a thumb over her brow. "I doubt it would be going so smoothly without your help. You've done a wonderful job. Has Hanabi thanked you?"

Hinata remained perfectly still, as still as she would have been if she had had the edge of a knife tracing her skin, a thing which she had endured on more than one occasion and which felt almost exactly the same.

"S-She does not need to. She is my sister I am happy to do it."

"I hope she will be as helpful to you when..." He paused, watching the startle that dilated her pupils at the train of his thoughts, the slight parting of her lips that hinted at her surprise. Green eyes lingering on that stunned mouth he stepped back, giving her the room he knew innately she desired.

"I hope she will be helpful to you as well, one day." He corrected, clasping his hands behind his back neatly.

With her fists clenched at her sides Hinata forced a smile to her face that hid the worry in her eyes. "I'm sure she will."

"Ah, there he is." Hanabi's call was elegant but loud enough to draw attention and the guests who had been enjoying the garden and sunset with warm sake in their hands now turned to look as the bridegroom entered.

"Finally." Naruto called, puncturing the mild tension that replied when Sasuke's impassive expression did not change at his introduction. Laughter bubbled and the party continued as the Uchiha was swallowed by the guests.

"Do you think that he actually gathered all those flowers himself?" Gaara asked suddenly, drawing Hinata to herself. At the sight of Sasuke standing on the engawa overlooking the crowd her heart had seized. The set of his mouth hinted at displeasure and not of the kind associated with social visits, but one she had rarely seen of late. His gaze had shifted through the faces landing briefly on her and moving on without a second's rest.

Turning to Gaara with eyes wide she blinked herself back to the present. "I would assume so, considering the evidence."

Gaara nodded, watching past her as Sasuke approached Hanabi and though they whispered together closely for a moment that looked private he could not look away.

Hanabi's flushed face poised to the Uchiha like a child seeking attention and Sasuke listened though his eyes were focused elsewhere, nodding his head and tolerating the press of her red painted lips to his cheek without grimace or smile.

"I suppose you're right, though it does seem... out of character."

Hinata kept her own gaze decidedly away from where she knew her sister and her fiance stood behind her. "People are so deceiving, Gaara-kun." Her sigh was melancholy and heavy as a stone through the pond's still water. "We are all of us deceivers, at every turn."

Frowning, Gaara turned to her, opening his mouth to ask if she was all right, if something had happened to make her sound so weary but the gong was then rung. Dinner began to come in platters from the kitchens, swarming the perfume of the garden with the steaming fishes in decadent sauces, the hot sweet breath of wooden basins filled with white steamed rice.

There was no more time to speak after that. Hinata took his hand, a thing she had never done before and led him to the table where they were to sit for the evening, derailing any chance of asking more.

* * *

As the sake flowed so then did the origami folding deteriorate to laughter and good times had by all. Sasuke watched as those he knew and who he now realized were going to be his family as officially as one could be without sharing blood ate and drank together.

Toasts were said of the couple, some dragged Sasuke teasingly through the mud and he allowed himself a small upturn of the lips which seemed to satisfy Hanabi. It had never much occurred to him to work to satisfy her in any way as she had never seemed interested in doing so for him but something had struck him about her sadness the night before.

It was similar to Hina's own and although he still found himself unable to find the charm in her smiles that so many others did he had to admit he at least did not want her to hurt.

Other speeches were made about the ties of family, the strength that came from intertwined roots and as the guests folded the origami that would grant the new branch of the Hyuuga one wish for prosperity he found himself listening and wishing it were all true.

How much simpler would it have been if he had been in love with Hanabi? How much more enjoyable would he have found the entirety of the charade, if in the end the one he wanted left with him.

And did not let him be alone.

"You've been quiet. And that's saying something, considering how little you like to speak." Naruto muttered as he wandered over. Dinner had long finished and more than anything the guests were enjoying the golden glow of the lanterns in the darkness of the night. Above the canopy of the heavens had been spread with sparkles and swirls of blue and black more beautiful than anything man made.

Hanabi had left his side to laugh and talk with those still attempting to fold the black and red, white and black origami paper into cranes for hanging on the tree the day of the wedding. It did not surprise him to see that although whole tables had produced a handful, sometimes a dozen or so it was Hinata's that now had a wicker basket supplied by the servants to gather all the cranes her hands were folding. One after the other, fold after fold. Unstoppable.

"These things." Sasuke sighed, taking a sip of the sake in his glass. "They are not exactly my favorite."

Naruto's snort was muffled as he sat beside him. "No, they are not. But you should _try_ to enjoy it. Hanabi looked pleased. Did she like the flowers?"

Sasuke glanced up at him, recalling again the irritation that had bloomed along with all the blossoms the night before. "Yes."

"Good." Memory had reached it's vengeful fingers into Naruto's mind then as well and hastily he stood up. "I think we're heading out of here soon. Sakura is..." He glanced back at his wife who had given up folding paper and was instead using a stack to fan herself. Pink in the face and robust as a ripe tomato she sat exhausted at their table.

"When is that going to happen?" Sasuke asked softly, wondering if he would get a chance to see it.

"Soon. Gods, I hope tomorrow even." Naruto muttered as he stood. "For everyone's sake."

Smirking slightly, Sasuke watched as his friend and Hokage went to gather his wife and thank their hosts. He noted that he avoided Hinata and she did not look up as he and Sakura thanked Hiashi and Hanabi for their hospitality.

Gaara had wandered to speak with Lee. With only Hinata left at their table Sasuke stood, watching her long fingers smoothing out the lines of the paper carefully, adjusting the corners so that they fit perfectly side by side.

Her head did not rise as he settled across from her, sliding one of the pieces of paper beneath her hands towards him. The black background was spread with a bleeding red blossom outlined in white. The colors of the Uchiha house.

He did not have to study her hands long to get the concept of the folds and in the silence they folded in tandem. One stroke across the folded paper to smooth the crease, a rustle as they pressed corner to corner, another hiss of fingers sliding on a crease.

"How many have you done?" He asked finally as she finished the crane in her hands, delicately adjusting his little head with her fingers stained with papercut scabs.

"Three hundred and twenty." She admitted, not looking up as she placed it in the basket beside them.

"You should stop." It took effort not to reach across the table to take her hand, to make it still on the smoothness of the lacquered wood and so keep it from slicing further.

"You need one thousand and one for a wish." Hinata looked up abruptly as his fingers inched across the table and pinned the paper she had gone to pick up down with one finger.

Softly so it was more just the shape on his lips than an actual word he whispered, "Stop."

Hinata smoothed her hands over the table top and then into her lap slowly. "What is the matter?"

It came out of him before he considered the consequences. He had to say something, her searching knowing stare demanded it, and a lie would not get past her.

"Sasu is not doing well."

Her body shifted as though to stand, eyes widening until he shook his head sharply and froze her where she sat. "You can't leave, they will certainly notice this time."

"You go. I'll make up something."

"He does not want me." Sasuke admitted. "It's not... he's all right. It's complicated."

"I'll be there as soon as I can, as soon as this is over." Hinata murmured. She had thought there was something about the set of his mouth and the dark flatness of his eyes that hinted at something being wrong but she had stupidly assumed it was something to do with the abrupt way he had left her the night before. The vain nature of the thought made her now feel sick and letting out a small breath to compose herself she took up another piece of paper and began to fold.

"Hinata, you're bleeding. You need to stop."

"I just-"

"Oh wait, just hold on a moment." Hanabi called then, stopping Naruto and Sakura on the engawa heading out towards the door. Glancing over her shoulder she looked keenly at Gaara whose face flooded so red that Lee grinned and smacked him hard on the back.

Hinata frowned slightly, absentmindedly aware of Sasuke standing. Silent, he stepped back from the table and nearly right into the chaos of the violet blooms that were smeared like paint over the entire softly lit garden.

Confusion flickered through her features as she glanced at him and before she knew what she was doing she was shoving herself to her feet as though to run. Only she was unable to when she realized all eyes, but most importantly one pair of green was focused on her.

Gaara looked almost as terrified as she felt. Had she been able to see herself she would have been surprised. Pale but still as the softly hushing snow she looked at his approach with hands steady and eyes wide, if unblinking.

He was speaking, she knew this. His lips which were a perfectly acceptable pink moved softly, as all of Gaara was prone to do. His hands took her own, and she felt the warmth that seemed to seep from him, like the very sand from which he came.

There was a question, asked gently and Hinata felt her mouth move, felt her voice sing something untrue.

Sound erupted, cries of delight and cheer. Petals grabbed by the handfuls were flung to the air to rain down in the warm spring night.

Hand in hand and lit by the glow of the cherry blossom tree behind them the Kazekage and Hinata made a picture worth framing. The light softened the tension across Hinata's shoulders and the worry frown on her brow, it brightened the Kazekage's green eyes to emeralds. It was a perfect moment and so it dawned on both Hinata and Sasuke at the same time what was about to happen.

Before either could drag in a frenzied fistful of air into their emptied lungs Gaara leaned forward and placed his lips on his fiance's.

* * *

 ** _it wants to end! It's trying to end! this story is on fire!_**

 ** _much, much love,_**

 ** _inky_**


	15. Chapter 15

It had taken most of the evening to tear herself free from her friends and family. The Hyuuga were an expansive tribe, and when the news of the engagement broke it didn't matter that the sky was writhing with clouds and that thunder rumbled from the mountains, ruining the beautiful summer night party with the sudden downpour. Runners were still dispatched to spread the news.

Hiashi looked between despair and joy, offering sake as often as he sipped it himself so that by the end of the evening servants were escorting him to his room. Regal as ever and extremely composed despite the unaccounted amount of liquor in his veins he kissed his daughters both good night, gazing long upon their faces as though picking out each feature that had once belonged to his own wife.

It was not long after that when Hinata finally dislodged herself from Gaara's grip. Although gentle it had remained. Always a hand on the knee, the small of her back, looped around her wrist. As if afraid she might disappear if he was not in constant contact with her his eyes smiled at all who congratulated him and his fingers remained ever present on his new prize.

It served Hinata well to have been trained in all the more elite forms of espionage. Spine straight, shoulders back , smile on.

"Thank you for coming."

"Thank you for the well wishes."

"Yes it's quite exciting."

"Yes I'm very happy."

Her words came out smooth. Her movements languid. Playing roles for work had always been easier than lying when being wholly herself although now she could not tell. What was she? A liar, both professionally and personally?

What was she?

In the end the lies continued. Behind her half moon Hyuuga eyes, cresting over the blushing pink of her cheeks her mind swirled like the storm that shuddered the rafters of the ancient Hyuuga House.

Was Lord Susa celebrating or was he tantruming his loss?

Dislodging herself from Gaara happened thanks to Lee and Tenten. Their eyes so keen and watchful over her since her cousin's death took in the minute flickers of panic that crept into the corners of her smiles and the edges of her brows. Tenten especially who read situations as easily as scrolls picked up on the high pitched breathless laugh that escaped Hinata's mouth and like the friend she was pulled her gently from her fiance.

There were no question from her but "Are you all right?" and it took all of Hinata's strength not to burst into tears. She had been waiting for someone to look at her that way, had been searching the crowd for the pair of dark eyes that would see her panic, that would understand and soothe with a simple invisible smirk.

But Sasuke had disappeared.

Tenten had noted the choked mess within Hinata's throat, had seen the struggle with which she breathed in and out and realizing the depth of her distress ordered her to bed. "I'll let them know you were feeling overwhelmed by the excitement."

No sooner had Hinata entered her bedroom than she ripped open her windows, launching out into the growing storm in the direction of the new Uchiha compound.

Above the sky raged, growing more bitter with every minute that passed. Clouds rolled in a furious boil of black and gray, violet and navy blue to contrast with the skittering scribble of lightning in the distance. Hampered by her kimonos weight she did not reach the house until she was soaked right to the marrow of her bones and shaking violently she had stepped inside and waited.

He never came.

A quick scan of the house revealed the sleeping forms of the children, confirming her fears that her willing engagement had not been enough. She had failed, and doomed them to the reworking of their present reality, to the destruction of their past and an unstable threatening future.

"Hinata." Itachi's shadowy form had no chakra and therefore no shape for her Byakugan to perceive. Shocked by his sudden appearance at the door of Sasuke's bedroom she startled backwards, slipping on the wet puddles she was making all over the wood floor as the rain cascaded from the heavy fibers of her kimono.

"Uchiha-san."

Without the barrier of acting, with no eyes to please and no one to lie to her voice came out cracked and unstable. Wide eyed she blinked the rain from her lashes, wiping ineffectually at the wetness on her face with the soaked sleeve of her kimono.

"Was Sasuke here? D-did you see him? I... I..." she paused, unsure of what the rest of her sentence was going to be. Thoughts were crumbling in her head like rotted wood. Any step she took in any direction threatened her with an abyss she did not trust. Instead she held herself perfectly still and closed her eyes, breathing deep to try to still her raging heart. Outside the storm finally cooled to a vexed downpour and less of a tantrum.

Above the skylight shifted the strange half light of night on the glass, swirling it with the trickles of rain, painting dark shadows that moved on Hinata's face.

Itachi sighed.

"He is not here, I am afraid."

Hinata agreed. She was afraid too.

* * *

Sasu woke to the sound of the water.

In his dream the water had been tears. They had poured from his eyes until the black had bled from his iris, until his gaze had been pale as the Hyuuga and when his mother looked upon him she had turned her back, shame overwhelming her features at the pearls on his face.

His heart, so small within his chest had been like a hummingbird in terror, thrashing itself to death within his ribcage. For if his mother abandoned him then so would everyone and if everyone left there would only be his reflection.

And with only his reflection he would never forget Hina-chan, whose eyes he now resembled.

It occurred to him seconds before waking that he did not want to forget.

Despite the nightmare Sasu's body snapping to waking happened in stillness and silence. The knot within his gut was the only thing to disturb. About his shoulders a blanket had been tucked neatly. At his side Hina's breath whispered against the shell curve of his ear and her hands tangled over his small hips, nose pressed to the jewel bumps of his curved spine.

It was a relentless kind of pour, steady and sure. This was no storm raging, neither was it the start or end of a downpour. From the trickling river on Big Sasuke's gutters he thought it had been raining for some time, and it was this thought that made him sit up with curiosity.

Rain was common in Konoha. Even in the heat of the summer months the village hidden in the leaves was a place of morning drizzles and evening fog. It was that which kept the trees green and the grasses long, shielding them from the world, making their shinobi the most agile of hiders.

Itachi had told him so.

 _"Real rain however is more rare in the summer and we're glad of that." Itachi had continued as Sasuke absorbed as always every word that came from his mouth. "Real rain ruins berries and destroys seedlings and batters vegetables. We don't want heavy clouds and angry storms. Like all of us the earth wants gentleness."_

Gentleness.

The hiss of Big Hinata's voice had Sasu blinking, examining his surroundings with more care.

Out the door he could see the edge of a kimono sleeve, the twisting fidget of long pale fingers through wet and badly knotted dark hair.

"What do you mean?" The whisper was shaky, and this alone made Sasu remain where he was. Any desire to slide from the bed and pad cat silent to the door for the purpose of taking Big Hinata's hand disappeared. There was heaviness in her voice that he knew but had no name for. Sadness perhaps, though he thought in his childish way that there was more to it. More he did not yet know.

"I am so sorry." Itachi's voice came to him, and if he had been a fawn his ears would have twitched, widening to take in their voices more keenly.

"Must you go? Are you going to Sasuke?"

"I am sorry that I cannot say more." Itachi continued, invisible to Sasu's focused Uchiha stare. "But I must go."

"Is it the gods? Do they call you?"

"No. No, Hinata."

"Where is my c-" Her pause was punctuated by a shuddered breath. "Where is Neji-nii?"

"I'm afraid I cannot say."

In the silence that replied frustration lingered heavy and Sasu watched intently at the tightening of Big Hinata's fist, the only part of her besides the long wet curling stain of black that was her hair smeared along her kimono sleeve.

"I am so sorry, Hinata."

The quiet did not change in any perceptible way and yet Sasu lay back down slowly, tucking the blanket back over his shoulder, eyes wide as he listened still.

The urge to leave the bed had left him. Instead he held his muscles tight, counting breaths between the sound of Big Hinata's muffled weeping.

Gentleness, his brother had said. The earth, like all of them, desired gentleness.

Turning around slowly Sasu started in surprise, blinking at Hina-chan's wide pale eyes, studying him back seriously, mouth downturned.

Nose to nose there was no escaping the hurt and accusation in her gaze, nor any desire to. Like always her mere presence was soothing, especially in light of the quiet weeping harmonizing with the rain. It seemed ridiculous now to think of pushing her away, with the sound of Big Hinata's distress it was impossible.

"S..." Hina began, and Sasu waited, breathing in her expelled breath like a tug a war of oxygen between them.

"Sasu."

There were many things in that one sound. Things like _I hurt._ Things like _you hurt._ Things like _I'm scared._ Things like _don't leave me._ Things like _I love you._

Pressing the tip of his nose to Hina's own seemed like the appropriate reply, shutting his eyes tight so that they ached.

"Hina."

 _I hurt._

 _You hurt._

 _I'm sorry._

 _I love you._

The trouble was he could not help but think it was not him leaving that was the issue. In his bones he knew like he knew the way Hina's hair shone violet in the noon day sun and the feel of her sticky hand in his.

If someone was doing the leaving, it was likely not him.

How young and how naive he was, not knowing how much a person could change.

* * *

It had been a very long time since he had let his body do what it will in the comfortable and familiar arena that was training. There was a point where, like the Hokage his abilities could not be exploited to their full potential within the confines of the village.

The sound of chidori, it's roar and power was something that made babies weep and housewives startle. It's electric shriek and the blast of his hands destroying would do damage that was not sustainable within the village proper or even it's outskirting training fields.

Even with the sound of thunder already clawing at the sky, with the rain and wind and power of Lord Susa mid victory dance he figured he would avoid questions if he went to do his destroying out in the black of the forest.

He ran for hours, burning the muscles of his legs, smearing mud through his hair and skin with the careless and relentless push of his body into he forest's embrace and once his distance was enough and the rain had turned to a gentle shower he had stopped to realize he had no wish to destroy. No wish to do anything.

Chidori did not rise to his hands, chakra moved sluggish through his limbs and instead he let himself crumble to the soggy moss carpet of the forest floor with the aim to focus on breathing. It was all he could manage.

The way back took longer by half. There was no need to rush, and no urge for it. He had fought battles that had rendered him shaky and slow, that had made him tremble with exhaustion. This was a different kind of battle. Relentless, his feet moved in a steady path back to the home he expected to be empty, to the memory of his brother's shadowy shape and the pitter patter of children's feet along his corridors echoing along with their laughter in the mornings.

Thoughts of pulling dishes from the fridge to dispose of the work Hinata had put into keeping their young charges alive was met with an insurmountable heaviness. The idea of pulling her apron from it's place at the back of the kitchen chair, folding it and placing it in the garbage along with any other reminders of a time lived in potent compressed secret was enough to make him pause. Leaning against a tree he rested, focusing once more on just existing.

Beneath his hand the slick surface of the tree he held onto felt surreal, even as he grappled to focus on that sensation. The bark was rough but softened by the water, the scent of resin and the coolness of summer night was heavy and he breathed in hard to persuade himself to calmness.

Through eyes unfocused he watched the grasses at the base of the tree's roots, tangled together like Hina and Sasu in his bed swaying to the rhythm of the slowing rain and with effort pushed himself on back to the place he would have to call home.

Dawn was only an hour or so from tingeing the sky a myriad of pinks and oranges, yellows and reds. He could see it in the way that the world began to seep it's navy blue behind the clouds drifting lazily away.

What a joy Susa must have been having, dancing through the heavens with his sister's fury to sweeten his victory.

Or so Sasuke thought, until he heard her voice from the steps of his house.

"Sasuke?"

Startled to stillness he lifted his head, bowed beneath the continued touch of the rain on his shoulders, less potent now after so many hours of relentless pouring.

His house looked the same as when he had left it. A looming rectangular shape against the flat expanse of Uchiha land it was an isolated island of an abode. The storm had ripped at the bushes out front, half their roots and bits of their leaves scattered over the steps on which Hinata sat with her hands clasping her knees tightly.

Behind her the single light of his porch shone a halo of gold spotted through with the remnant raindrops, casting her in it's soft glow, smudging the edges of her kimono, smoothing the darkness of her hair into a spill of ink that made him think for a moment that perhaps he was hallucinating.

It had been a long night, and a longer walk still. He could not be sure how much territory he had crossed in the hours that had passed. Could he be exhausted beyond rationality? Worn until daydreaming?

The mirage moved, soaked kimono panels weighed heavy with water straining to hold onto Hinata's shoulders so that her fingers clenched at the fabric to keep it closed at her throat and as his eyes adjusted to the half light her face finally came into view.

Tears like the rain were pooling at the corners of her eyes and she blinked rapidly, releasing them to join the unsalted trails of water that already tracked down her face.

"I'm... I'm so sorry."

He felt as his lips parted, as his breath escaped him in a rush and was sucked back in so that he could feel the edges of his lungs aching. Uncertainly he toyed with several different sentences, finding the only one he could manage to say that would not completely destroy him.

"What are you doing here?"

Hinata flinched, dropping her gaze at the question as though she had been expecting it. "I... I'm sorry. I tried. I thought... I thought it would work if I said yes to Gaara. I just came to... I just wanted to-" She paused, seemed to rally herself and with hands ever tighter on her kimono clenched her jaw. "I wanted... I wanted to see if you were all right, and you said Sasu was needing me, I just.. I..." she stumbled, two steps backwards from the steps as though realizing she was blocking his way into his own house.

"I...I am sorry. You... you do not want me here, of course. You must be so angry-I will go-"

The skirt of her kimono had barely shifted to allow her back onto the road before his hand was snatching her wrist, pulling her forward.

"Sasu is still here." It was not a question, although the dark eyes that boring into her were desperate for some sort of answer. Hinata stared back through her tears, counting the trickles of water that slid along his cheeks and over his lips in tiny rivers.

"Y...yes." She blinked rapidly, watching as something bloomed slow as the uncurling of petals on his features. Stunned by the softening expression she breathed in, tasting his breath on her tongue.

"Sasuke?"

"You..." He was looking less through her now, searching for something as though reading a scroll, counting every feature like he would a clue. "You are soaking wet."

There was no time to continue the conversation, as abruptly as he had grabbed her wrist he was dragging her inside and slamming the door closed to the porch light, leaving them in the shadow of the living room where only the trickle of the water seeping from their clothes and their hurried breaths whispered.

"You should change." His words came clipped in the dark, calm as always and Hinata could hardly fathom this strange turn of events. There were many things she had expected. One was the possibility that he would not return, that he would disappear into the wild places of Fire Country never to be seen again until the day the wager was over and their bodies disappeared to be replaced by their younger counterparts.

Another possibility that she had been wholly preparing herself for had been his wrath. Bitten words and accusations she had armoured herself against, for how could she not expect his anger when she had failed them both. Her lie, in agreeing to marry Gaara of the Sands was the sealing of their fate. There would be no pursuing a different pair of hands to gift her heart to when engaged to another, and although Sasuke's attempts with Hanabi were too minute to be of use there was little more he could do, being who he was.

And yet... instead of rancor he offered her a towel.

"Hinata. You will catch a-"

"Why are you not angry with me?"

His hands took the towel from her own, seeing the unwilling stillness of her body in the dark. The thought of turning on the light was intolerable however, and so he continued in the shadows, unfolding the fabric methodically before draping it over her head.

"I...I cannot."

Another unforseen answer had her pulling the towel back to stare into his face, wishing for more light with which to catch his expression. Instead she made due with the twist of his lips, both unhappy and yet so much less furious than she had anticipated.

Much less furious than she deserved.

"I... I have made it so that we- so that there- I have failed." She managed finally, struggling through the growing tightness in her throat before burying her face into her hands. "Do you not understand that I failed us both-"

"I understand." Calmly still he took her wrist, turning to lead her up the stairs step by step with only the endless tapping of the rain on the windows for company.

"Sasuke, we-"

"There's no changing anything tonight." He cut in, stopping briefly at the doorway to look at the sleeping children on the bed, their shapes such a relief as to make him shudder. Misunderstanding the shake of his body so close to her own Hinata bit her lip. "Y.. You are as cold as I am. I should go, I can be back in the-"

"Stay." Turning slowly to her was inevitable. He had to explore the way she paused, the way her lips so full parted to study his own expression, searching, searching, searching.

Softly, because his voice had abandoned him cruelly at the worst of times he continued, "Please."

He could see the knot she swallowed, and felt himself squeeze her wrist despite every attempt to keep still as possible.

"I...I cannot take the kimono off on my own."

It was not a no.

* * *

Considering it should have been the worst of mornings it did not begin as he had dreaded. The touch of light on his face induced the parting of his lashes to survey the landscape of the world he found himself in.

Beside him, pressed right into the crook of his arm, tucked close enough so that her breath tickled his nose was Hina, like layers on a truffle Sasu hugged her back, lashes dark against his skin where the sun shone so brightly, brightening the pale hue of his cheeks and the pink of his mouth.

This was all normal, and therefore easy to gaze upon, but he could not help but hesitate to let his focus move further to where another arm was draped along Sasu's little side. Clothed in the baggy excess of his borrowed clothing Hinata's face was mostly hidden from view. He could see the curve of her cheek, the black of her hair messy from going to sleep wet in a mane about her shoulder and the curve of her hip behind Sasu's small shape.

The sight of her hand relaxed over Sasu's side drew the unavoidable image of her standing still with her back to him in the darkness of his room, taking his hands to guide him blind through the unravelling of the obi tied neatly at the small of her back.

Layers of fabric still clung to her as the obi loosened and became endless stretches of fabric in his hands, layers of robe could be seen protruding from beneath the lavender collar at the nape of her neck and yet his throat had been dry and his hands shaky as he had watched the outer panels relax to dangle dangerously from her shoulders.

This thought alone managed to heat his face to rival Hina when excited and it was of course that moment which Hinata chose to yawn herself sleepily awake.

Hugging a pillow she looked like she belonged there among the warmth of his blankets, swimming in his borrowed clothing. He had never seen her before with her hair a mess, or watched her tighten to a ball mid snooze. There was Hina in the way her knees stacked, twisting her ankles together. There too was the wrinkling of her nose, just like Hina before yawning.

Lifting her eyes finally she froze, startled to find the black of his Uchiha gaze so fixated on her face.

"G..g..good morning."

The rush of blood to her face was enough to make him turn away, muttering something that might have been a hello- or at least he hoped it was. The urge to hide behind a pillow nearly overpowered him before he dislodged Hina from his side and sat up.

"W..what time is it?" Less groggy and more jumpy Hinata sat up with him on the other side of the barrier of children, combing her hands through her hair so as to have something to hide behind.

"Nearly eleven." Sasuke managed, turning to watch Hina stretch long and bowed like a cat before yawning and offering him a dazed smile. Unable to resist he smiled back.

"I should- I'm going to make breakfast- or lunch? I'll do that and then, I suppose we can talk about-"

"Later." Sasuke cut in, watching as Hina rolled over onto her side to examine Sasu's still sleeping face. Together he and Hinata watched as the little girl smiled, leaning forward to press her nose to Sasu's own.

Hinata stood then, walking backwards as she braided her hair, adjusting the extra fabric at her shoulders on his shirt. "Okay, later then. Coffee?"

It was not strange that she was offering him coffee in his own home, although for a moment they thought together that maybe it should have been.

Still, he answered calmly, ignoring that which should have been strange. "Please."

In fits and starts they began the day. Sasuke showered, came down for breakfast and watched her dance about his kitchen as always. The children ran and played, nearly tripping them both more than once as he tried and failed to assist Hinata with the chopping of vegetables, the stirring off flour and milk and eggs into something resembling pancake batter.

At the table normalcy seemed restored. Sasu talked loudly, tugging on Hinata's apron for attention any moment that her eyes were not upon him, smiling at even the smallest comment from Hina, engaging even with Sasuke's amused eyerolls and subtle jabs.

Once all tummies were satisfied Hinata disappeared to shower at Sasuke's urging and with one child on either side of him at the sink they filled the basin with warm water and bubbles, making him think again of a time very long ago when his heart had felt so similar.

It was not until early afternoon when Hinata finally came back in from the courtyard where she and the kids had spent over an hour digging out weeds and examining the earth for it's richness that she suggested it was time she returned to the Hyuuga compound to avoid anyone worrying of her whereabouts.

They had not spoken of anything, and at her words Sasuke simply nodded, interested in the way she rubbed her palms along her legs nervously, twisting the end of her braid around and around a finger before flicking her eyes to him and away.

"Should we not discuss the-"

"Tomorrow." He cut in, closing the book he had been examining. "Try not to fret."

Bashfulness forgotten by her confusion Hinata stared, lips parted and heavy with words. "Sasuke, we... we need to prepare the children for what will happen when the month ends. We need to perhaps speak with Naruto, maybe even-"

"Hinata." Sasuke stood then, moving to the door to escort her out. "I will speak about this with you tomorrow."

The frown on her face was not one of discontent so much as puzzlement. Searching his face gave her nothing and so she sighed. "All right, if you think it best-"

"I do."

Curiously still she stepped through the door, readjusting the borrowed clothes on her body with idle fingers. "I will be here tomorrow morning then."

"Yes." Sasuke nodded, pursing his lips to keep them from lifting mildly at the pinched edges of her gaze and the wrinkled cuteness of her nose.

"Okay." still dumbfounded she followed the steps down onto the road and away with the beat of the hot summer sun upon her shoulders.

She had barely taken ten steps before Sasuke felt the cool mist of a ghost behind him and slamming the door closed turned finally to his brother and Neji standing hesitantly before him in a swirl of fog.

"Why are you two and the children still here?" Sasuke snarled, pressing a hand hard to his heart where the pain he had been ignoring throbbed. "How can they still be here? Why is this not over?"

Itachi breathed in deep, watching out of the corner of his eye as Neji's gaze widened, realizing the truth.

"I felt it." Sasuke threw bitterly at them. "I felt as my heart cracked yesterday." Breath coming in painful fits and starts he buried his face into his hands.

"I love her."

* * *

 _ **I thought I knew where this was going.**_

 _ **I do not.**_

 _ **Lordy, I don't even know when I get to write this thing. I am not in charge, clearly.**_

 ** _Much, much love_**

 ** _Inky_**


	16. Chapter 16

_"Sasuke."_

 _Her hand was in Gaara's, her back to him. On his skin the goosebumps spread like a fire, and his insides tightened to fists._

 _"Sasuke."_

 _He blinked, dragging his eyes from Hinata's back where Gaara's hand rested, right at the dip where the kimono cinched. He felt his fingers twitch remembering how it felt to have his hand there while she cooked breakfast in his house._

 _"Sasuke."_

 _Naruto's hands on his shoulders forced his gaze to the Hokage's own. Too much passed over the features of his friend's face. Quick snippets of regret, sadness, sympathy._

 _"Go. I'll cover for you."_

 _Sasuke opened his mouth, feeling the hitch of air on his ribcage, the sting of heat at the back of his throat. And inside, where his heart continued to beat feebly a growing pulse of cold._

 _"Go, Sasuke." Naruto's grip tightened on his shoulders. "Go. You are going to be fine."_

No.

No he was not.

Out somewhere among the mountains that circled the village a sudden storm had been born when Hinata's lips pressed to Gaara's, right as the cheering of the crowd erupted. Sasuke only noted it several seconds after the thunder roared for like the thunder inside his chest something else had cracked.

It knocked the air from his lungs, punched a hole through his sternum and for one agonizing moment he slid his hands to his chest where the pain ebbed and flowed, even as his eyes took in the Kazehage's hand on Hinata's back.

Training, so long engrained was too automatic for him to stop. His brain moved in rapid succession through his limbs, assessing his body for damage, looking for the source of the pain.

No broken ribs, no torn skin, no bleeding veins, no damaged organs.

Sasu's little voice whimpered through his mind and it was only then that he realized the burn at the back of his throat was his determined fight with tears.

 _I'm going to be alone._

There would be no forgetting that feeling, of being irrevocably damaged. Even a whole night and most of a day later it still ached. Sasuke pointed at Itachi forcefully, the threat of a wounded creature fighting. "Why is this not done?"

Itachi sighed heavily, aware keenly of Hina and Sasu's shrieking cries of play out in the courtyard where Hinata had kept them occupied for so long.

"It's... complicated."

"This can't be happening." Neji put in breathlessly, turning away from the Uchiha brothers as though he could tolerate the sight of them no longer.

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke's snap was heavy with impatience, his voice thin and choked at once, earning a look of pain from his brother at the realization of just how bad it was.

"The gods came here." Itachi murmured when Neji said nothing in reply. "Last night."

 _Their shifts were hard to designate. How does one measure time when one is dead? Itachi had intended to be away for a day, one rise and set of the sun but when he finally reappeared like a misty condensation it had been many dawns. Enough for Sasuke to demand an explanation._

 _What could they possibly say?_

 _Searching through the heavens and in the layers of worlds where spirits hid took time and energy, both of which were difficult to quantify for a dead thing. Gods were usually brazen beings, loud and biting, their power flattening any spirit creature that got too close. They had counted on finding their quarry easily._

 _Of course they would be searching for the one god who was neither loud nor brazen. No, Tsuku was a thing unlike the rest of his kin. Tsuku was like the Hyuuga._

 _Tsuku was as like his siblings as water is like fire._

 _The rip of the lightning brightened the dark room where the two children slept. It lit their faces and the frowns of discontent that had made permanent homes on their foreheads. In the sudden flash Itachi whirled towards the window, and had he had lungs he would have sucked in a last breath before bracing for what was being heralded by the thunder._

 _"Lord Susa." Neji's voice rang out, one clear panicked whisper and then the god appeared._

 _Another crack of thunder, another ribbon of light through the darkening clouds of the sky and the Lord of Chaos stepped from the shadows. He was too large for the room. Reality itself seemed to flex around the monstrosity of his existence. Itachi and Neji were flattened to the walls the way flies are to windshields, feeling the subtle watery casing of their souls being slowly shredded to ribbons by the power before them._

 _Uncaring, Lord Susa lifted muscled arms high and wide, eyes closed as he listened to the roar of the rain that was quickly rushing from the mountains to drum a wild beat over Konoha. Mad as the storm itself he roared._

 _"Victory!"_

 _On the bed the children shifted, sleep clinging unnaturally to their eyelids, weighing down their bones._

 _"Stop it." Lady Ama appeared in a flurry of heat and fire. Any restraint before shown was gone. Her skin was paper thin and lit from within so the veins of her face glowed crimson with fury. In her pupils stars exploded and bellowed brightly, as terrible as they were beautiful with their glow._

 _"Ah, Sister!" Lord Susa's voice held the metal tinge of power and unrestrained holy glee. "You heard the crack of a heart, yet you rush to deny my win! True to form."_

 _Turning to examine his sibling's face the Lord of Chaos grinned. Thousands of teeth flashed behind his lips as another lightning bolt ripped the heavens. It seemed ridiculous that he had ever appeared remotely human. In his unabashed form he was a thing from nightmares, beautifully made, terribly perfect._

 _"Nonsense." Lady Ama billowed not just light and heat but smoke, thick and black as the sulfurous clouds of volcanoes. "I need not deny anything- a crack is not a break and we agreed. We agreed on heart_ break _."_

 _With a flick of her wrist and splattering of flame a roll of parchment extended from her hand in a ribbon bright and glowing as her own flesh. Lord Susa's signature flared black as octopus ink at the bottom beside the elegant scrawl of Lady Ama's own crimson name._

 _A growl, rumbling as the groans of dormant earthquakes rolled from Susa's mouth. No longer smiling his teeth shone even brighter in the growing chorus of lightning dancing through the sky._

 _"Technicalities."_

 _"Binding contracts."_

 _The pause that followed Lady Ama's seethed reply seemed to bring a smirk to her plump mouth. Susa's gaze, dark as it was had grown still even as outside the rain whipped at the glass and the trees leaned back at the force of the wind._

 _"He may yet choose to give voice to his feeling. He may yet choose to entice her. She may yet choose him." Lady Ama dared to snap. "This is not yet finished."_

 _"How badly you have played this game, Sister." Susa bared his teeth. "Now that you are losing you scramble to counter the very plot you started with that fox of yours. You pointed out her inability to reciprocate any feelings. You made your own chances impossible."_

 _"I miscalculated." Ama shrugged, the movement uncanny on holy shoulders as she rolled up the contract of their bet. "I thought that the one with the softer heart would be more likely to succumb. Uchiha's are a breed of their own. Always so surprising." She smiled, letting her eyes slide to the two servant spirits pinned to the walls. "It is understandable, I suppose. Considering they have all our blessings, and no patron god. Poor things."_

 _"Poor." Susa spat irritably. "Don't pretend to care, the only reason we are playing with an Uchiha and a Hyuuga is that you would rather break Tsuku's toys than your own."_

 _"So crass." Ama sighed, waving a hand in goodbye as she disappeared. "So frustrated."_

 _Growling low with his vexation Susa too vanished like a swirl of cream in coffee. With twin gasps of pain and barely holding together Neji and Itachi crumbled in relief._

 _Outside the storm continued to rage, no longer victorious but furious. Half lit by the peals of lightning the two guardians looked at one another, needing no words to communicate the one truth they both knew._

 _They were running out of time._

As concise as possible Itachi let his voice fade, watching as Sasuke struggled to breathe through his explanation of the gods and their visit.

"They said..." Sasuke began slowly, eyes flicking to Neji still turned from him.

"They said that I may still choose to-"

"No." As he had anticipated Neji whirled to face them both, face pinched tightly. "No you cannot."

Suddenly falling into rank beside his brother Itachi levelled a look of calm threat at the Hyuuga with a smile. "No?"

He did not seem particularly inclined to hear but he asked anyway. "Tell us why not.

* * *

The fact that she had slept at all seemed impossible, and yet she had. It had not been a long sleep, but it had been a deep one and so as she climbed the side of the Hyuuga house to the second floor and her bedroom her limbs moved easily on the sun heated rock.

Below on the engawa there were servants chattering away. Many things had to be done as all of the guests for the wedding began to arrive. Among them if they could be spared would be Kankuro and Temari, Gaara's siblings.

Her future siblings, were it not for the fact that she was soon to fade away.

It was strange. As she pushed open her bedroom window and lamented the wet puddles left by the rain of the night before on the marble she sighed, puzzled by her own lack of panic. One would think that being erased and restarted, like a letter unwanted and discarded for a new draft would be horrifying and yet there was no acceleration of her heart beat, no sweat on her palms and hardly a knot in her stomach to account for it.

In her mind it was not dissimilar to death, and death she had long ago come to terms with. No one with her job and in her family faced what they did and not have some semblance of respect and relief from the concept of dying.

Changing into yukata was a simple matter, and brushing out the length of her hair before braiding it neatly behind her she paused before he mirror, contemplating what she was to step out into on the other side of her bedroom door.

Gaara, for one. Her sister for another.

Father.

Closing her eyes at the memory of her father's joy at her acceptance as well as his pain at losing both his daughters to other houses made the memory no less potent. With a sigh she pushed herself up from the floor and walked carefully out into the corridor.

Servants were still in the business of cleaning up from the party. Putting vases away still fragrant with Sasuke's flowers all over the Hyuuga Main House, spreading clean sheets on all the guest beds that would be occupied with relatives as the days wore on.

There was no telling where her father and sister would be, or Gaara either for that matter. There had been no set plans and so when she entered the dining room she was startled to find all three present and equally surprised to see her in turn.

"Daughter." Hiashi called, his smile both tired and endearing. "You look well."

"She should." Hanabi put in succinctly. "After all that sleep. How long was it, sleeping beauty?" Her sister smiled, gathering some pickled ginger with her chopsticks before popping it into her mouth. "Twelve hours? Thirteen?"

Blushing crimson at the insinuation of laziness Hinata balked.

"Nonsense." Gaara cut in, smiling fondly at the elder Hyuuga before moving over to make room for her at his side. "She hardly slept the night prior." He paused. "Perhaps due to a lot of work she was doing for a certain person she loves dearly."

It was so very strange to have someone arguing for her, especially to someone as Hanabi that Hinata gaped, not unlike her sister who let out a delighted laugh. "Well, look at you." She grinned, adjusting her chopsticks in her hand idly. "Here you've found yourself a gallant protector. How wonderful."

Gaara's blush instantly moved to match Hinata's own as she settled at his side, more reluctantly than she wanted to admit.

"I... I'm sorry if I was needed earlier and-" Hinata began, stopping at Gaara's minute shake of his head, his hands taking the dishes offered to her by the maids to place before her. "Nonsense. You had a trying day."

"Exciting day." Hanabi corrected. "The word is exciting. Which is decidedly not what is happening for me today. I have the seating arrangement to redo thanks to the fact that many more family members want to come suddenly." She frowned as she scribbled on the paper beside her where so many names were lumped together in groups. "I have a feeling it might have something to do with wanting to see a certain new couple."

"We will make it work." Hiashi finally cut in, giving his daughter a look that suggested she needed to tone herself down somewhat. "Soon it will all be done and..." He paused, shocking himself at the sound of his voice cracking.

Hinata, Gaara and Hanabi together looked at him, no longer eyeing each other nervously in the face of what looked like uninebriated emotion coming out of Lord Hiashi's mouth.

"...and the Hyuuga house will be empty." He finally continued after a moment to compose himself. It was rather a shoddy job, his lips so firmly pressed together still trembled and Hanabi's eyes consumed her face with her shock, keeping time with Hinata's own.

"Oh... Father."

"No, don't do that." Hiashi stood hastily, placing his napkin on the table with a huff. "I need only go for a walk and I shall be right as rain. Thank you. Continue your meal, please."

Silently the trio watched as the stern and once cold patriarch marched off the engawa and into the garden, back straight and hands firmly clasped behind him.

"It... will be an honor having a part in a family such as yours." Gaara murmured after a long moment, turning to Hinata. "It will be an honor sharing such a father with you both."

Hanabi, suddenly less hungry let out a little laugh. "He is not a perfect father, but..." she smiled at Hinata, who was still watching him walk away. "He is a good one, and that is more than enough."

"Yes." Hinata agreed softly. "It is."

There was still no skipping heart beats in her chest in fear of a future she no longer had, of a life she would no longer lead.

But there was mourning, gentle as an old bruise to nurse as she studied Gaara's green eyes so keen upon her, and Hanabi's easy smile, her father's straight stiff shoulders bearing all his emotion so heavily.

Those were things she would miss dearly.

* * *

"You... were not in your room this morning." Gaara said. They had been quiet for some time, walking in slow calm steps from the Hyuuga compound in the direction of the hospital. Hinata had a shift to attend to, and though she would not say it to Gaara, her notice to give.

It would be welcomed with ease. Any job she might have had at the hospital could no longer hold sway over the monumental job that a wedding to the Kazekage would be. With her own sister's wedding coming so fast they would take her leave with grudged acceptance.

Hinata needed the time anyway. Sasu and Hina needed training, much of it for the simple act of surviving. The world and the landscape they would inhabit could be so different from what they now faced. Even if Sasuke agreed to let Naruto in on the secret, there was no guarantee Naruto would be there for the children, after the dust settled.

They would need to be capable of caring for themselves.

"I...I was-" Hinata stuttered, taken aback by Gaara's sudden statement. It had the words of an accusation but none of the bite. Sheepishness rather tainted his tone and he turned to study the busy street bustling with wives and mothers out gathering the ingredients for their suppers.

Her mind skipped for a moment to Sasuke's house, trying to recall what was left in the fridge and worrying that perhaps there was not enough to fill those empty tummies.

"It's all right." Gaara smiled as she tried to come up with something. "You had much to think about and if I know you at all perhaps the rain soothed some of the thoughts that bothered you."

Hinata stared, allowing him the luxury of taking her elbow to guide her around a notch on the boardwalk.

"I did... have a lot of thinking to do." She admitted, coming as close as she could to the truth.

"I am sorry if my manner of asking- if my asking when I did-" He paused, reworked his sentence with a sigh and continued. "I inquired of Hanabi if she thought it prudent for me to...broach the subject of marriage when so many who love you were present. I asked if she thought that a good idea, and she said yes but to be honest she was not exactly herself when I inquired and I did not take that into consideration."

Thinking back on Hanabi's mild inebriation of two nights ago Hinata sighed, turning back to watch their path towards the hospital's looming towers.

"It did surprise me somewhat." She allowed gently. "It did not seem like you to be so..."

"Showy."

"Public." Hinata corrected gently, forcing a smile for his sake. "I was going to say public."

"You do not seem unhappy." Gaara stopped, holding her back from continuing her path to their destination. "You do not seem sad, but...Hinata..." He breathed in, studying her face and the calmness with which she studied him back. "You do not seem...joyful either."

It was then, for the first time perhaps that Hinata contemplated the fact that this young man, with eyes earnest and bright knew her. He knew the turn of her lips despite her smile meant something hid behind her words, and that her disappearance from her room when he had gone to check for her in the morning signalled much on her mind.

He had known all along that there was much on her mind.

The urge, momentary as it was to confide in him all that was burdening her made her tongue heavy in her head, weighed by how much she wished she could say.

No sooner had Sasuke's face come forth however, no sooner had she pictured him and Gaara in the same room discussing the wager, the children, the sneaking around that she had been complicit in than she swallowed the words.

No.

There was no fixing this.

"I'm sorry." Softly said the words were perhaps the first truly honest ones to be directed at him thus far. "I'm very sorry."

There was mild sadness as he smiled, tolerable sadness even as his hand took hers and lifted it to kiss the inside of her wrist.

"You do not love me, as I love you."

Hinata opened her mouth, watching as he smoothed his fingers over the kiss he had just placed upon her skin.

"Do not answer that." He breathed, lifting his green eyes to her own quickly. "It was an unfair question and selfishly asked. I knew... perhaps your attachment was not as strong as my own but Hinata, I would never force you to-"

"No." Hinata grabbed his hand hard, harder than intended. "You forced nothing on me. I made my choice, I was not coerced, please, please don't think that. Gaara-kun... Gaara-kun you are my friend, so dear to me and I-" she stopped, surprised by the sudden flood of tears on her cheeks. "Oh no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Shss." Gaara's smile hurt more than his anger, his disappointment or hurt. Hidden behind his smile was emotion he was shielding her from and it made her hang her head in shame.

"It's all right." He shook his head. "It's all right. I can...if you let me, I can make you happy. I know it. I knew about Naruto before I put myself in this position, I was aware-"

"Oh." Hinata sucked in a breath, stunned by the sudden turn in the conversation. "Oh..I.."

"I upset you before your shift at work." Chastising himself Gaara wiped at her tears gently. "Forgive me. I did not intend that."

"I'm all right." Determined to stop the tears Hinata breathed deeply, forcing herself to look on his face despite the urge to not meet his eyes, lest he see her discomfort and misunderstand it.

"I care so much about you." He admitted this as though it were a revelation to him also. "You may talk to me about anything. Yes?"

It would have been such a joy to hear such a thing in different circumstances. Hinata breathed in and nodded, despite her quiet disagreement. Some things simply could not be shared.

"Good. I'll leave you then, so you may have some peace before reaching the hospital. I would not want Tsunade-sama reprimanding me for upsetting you." He smiled and Hinata allowed herself a weak laugh.

"I...I won't be at dinner tonight." She put in suddenly, catching him as he began to turn away. "Perhaps I will work late, and.." she shrugged, unable to continue with her made up stories. Probable though it was, she had no reason to think she would be late in being released from the hospital.

"All right, well..." He hesitated then, two steps away and tethered somehow to her still. Hinata blinked, unsure of what was causing him distress until the distance between them shrunk in a single quick bound and his lips pressed to hers.

It was the kiss of a little boy, as fleeting and innocent as Sasu's own on her cheek and with the tips of his ears blazing red he was gone, waving a good bye over his shoulder.

Glad to not have to hide her mournful expression Hinata waved weakly and turned sadly back on her way.

* * *

"You cannot approach her with a confession of love." Neji spat the last word as though he had been forced to bite into something foul. "What kind of love would that be, to force her to even consider you."

"You best watch your next few words." Itachi put in calmly, stepping in front of his brother before the younger and still shaken Uchiha could gather his wits about him. Things were changing too quickly.

There was a twisting bit of agony inside that was distracting, always Hinata's name brought forth a pinch of discomfort as much as hunger and although the tone of Neji's accusation was repulsive something in it struck a note of truth inside him.

Something he already knew.

Had known all along.

Something he had been purposefully using to ignore any thoughts of her mouth in a smile, or her hair black against the smoothness of her pale neck, the way her hands smoothed the tears from Hina's face, the way she fought hard in her family's defense.

"She would never consider me." He muttered, mostly to himself, although Neji and Itachi both heard, distracted momentarily from their glaring stand off by the quiet thought.

"Sasuke-" Itachi began slowly, ignoring the disapproving look Neji threw at him.

"I'm Hanabi's, in her mind." Sasuke clarified, lifting his eyes to his brother and causing him for once to pause his protestations. "In everyone's mind."

"Would you ask her to disappoint her family? Break her father's heart, become ostracized by them all, betray her sister's trust?" Neji shook his head. "What kind of love would that be, really? What kind of life?"

"You were so sure that Lady Ama had their best interests in mind." Itachi's voice was cold as and sharp as broken ice, his gaze unrelenting on Neji's now apologetic countenance. "I was wrong. I... I'm sorry. I did not think that both the gods involved would be so-"

"I can break this." Sasuke mused then, his frown focused somewhere far away. "I can break it if I...when I tell her."

"No, you must not-" Neji began again and Itachi hushed him, earning another glare.

"Sasuke, you need to think hard about what you're saying. Her rejection will break you- the crack you felt was only the beginning. The wager will be over, the children returned but then what?" Itachi raised his hands as though to touch his brother's face and dropped them abruptly at the feel of sunbeams passing through his shape, lighting on Sasuke's skin in the swimming dancing way of light through water.

"What about the life after? Separate from her?"

The weight that had felt so insurmountable was sinking into his bones again as he studied his floor, shinning under the brilliance of the late afternoon. Sasu and HIna's shadows played along the golden hues as they tumbled into the house from the courtyard, hand in hand and rushed up the stairs together.

Separate would have been tolerable, preferable even. Separate he would only think of her when her existence refused to be pushed to the back of his mind, into the past with all his other memories. But there would be no separate, no. Like the rest of this miserable lot he had been handed this came with a bitter after taste to chase the poison. He was marrying after all into her family. Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, New Years all would be tainted with her presence, barring his escape into forgetfulness.

"Sasuke-" Itachi began again, the pleading nature of his voice already making his brother's jaw clench interrupted by the sudden rapid knock on the door.

Turning abruptly Sasuke blinked, unsure of who could stand on the other side. Behind him the ghosts disappeared in puffs of smoke and a hiss of mist before he carefully opened the door and peered out unsurprisingly at Naruto's face, set into a serious half smile that communicated more about his sadness than his mirth.

"Yo." Naruto supplied from the second step, hands loosely pressed into his pockets. "Got time for a quick spar?"

Sasuke did not bother waiting to check if the ghosts behind him were in agreement with his choice. Blindly he pulled shoes from the shelf by the door and slammed the door shut behind him.

"Let's go."

* * *

"No, I understand. I was expecting this meeting the moment the Kazekage dared to kiss you in front of your Father." Tsunade grumbled mildly, shuffling stacks of patient files along her desk as though to make room before her although all she was managing to do was create more havoc.

Hinata stood with her hands neatly behind her back and her face carefully placid. Eyes like Tsunade's saw bits of everything and it would not surprise her if remnant curiosity concerning Sakura's idea that Hinata was pregnant were still floating about in her blonde head.

Sakura, on the other hand was absent minded as she leaned tiredly on the door frame.

"Please tell me this does not mean I will be working until I go into labour." Stretched now to the limits of her very skin she did appear about ready to sleep on her feet. In the heat of the summer sun her face was flushed and pretty, her pink hair only highlighting the emerald of her eyes.

Hinata smiled, sympathetic to the obvious discomfort that plagued her.

"No, no, I'll figure something out." Tsunade shrugged, pushing herself to her feet. "You're only here because you want to be, Sakura. Don't blame this on me. You're the masochist."

"If I'm going to be uncomfortable here or at home by myself I would rather do it here." Sakura lamented. "Here I at least can afflict others around me with it too."

"Hm." Tsunade grumbled. "And you." She added, pointing at Hinata who was now thinking how odd it was to have ever been wounded by the round tummy and growing child inside Sakura. "When will you be thus afflicted, do you think?"

It took a moment for Hinata's thoughts to drift from Naruto's coming offspring to the fact she was being asked about the possibility of her own. As soon as the penny dropped however her face flamed to scarlet, unstoppable as a flood.

"N-n-no, not for- I mean to say- I don't think-"

"Oh, please." Sakura grumbled. "I'm uncomfortable enough already, I can't watch this. Come on, Hinata. Let's get you signed out officially, yes? I'll get you guest privileges in case you're ever able to pick up a shift here and there."

"Yes, all right." Hinata scampered out first, holding the door open as Sakura made her unstable way out.

"I always said I would avoid being here when I started to waddle." She muttered as they began their way down the hall together, Hinata making a point not to notice the decided waddle happening to her right.

"But honestly," Sakura continued, "I'm not only creating life, I'm working and healing people. If waddling is what I gotta do to get that done, then get out of my way before I waddle over you."

"Right." Hinata agreed. "I... I'm glad you're... feeling well enough to continue."

"Mmm." Sakura hummed, stopping at the nurse desk for a breather while she gathered the paper work required for Hinata. "How about you though? How are you feeling after last night?"

"Oh I'm..." Hinata drifted off, searching for a lie and finding none forthcoming, none which would withstand Sakura's watchful eye.

"You know." Sakura continued as though Hinata had not floundered awkwardly. Eyes down and focused on the forms she was signing she pressed on. "I wanted to send Hanabi an apology note today, for last night."

Blind sided, Hinata paused blinking rapidly in confusion. "Apology?"

"Mhm." Sakura continued. "I figured she would have complained to you about Naruto sending Sasuke away at the end of the party for work. Naruto said it was urgent but I can't believe he would do that at their Crane Folding Party. Hanabi has been planning the thing for weeks."

It took a moment of quietness for Hinata to frown slightly, confusion melting away very slowly to reveal a thing she did not recognize, but knew to be important somehow.

"Yes, she had been planning it for weeks." Hinata murmured. "Although, she did not mention any grievance to me."

"Ah." Sakura looked up briefly, and the knowingness in her face was unnerving. "She probably did not want to upset you right after your engagement. She's more thoughtful than I give her credit for, sometimes. I would not have thought her willing to share the spotlight on a day like yesterday, she did so very elegantly though."

"Hanabi is just... spirited." Hinata frowned again. "You say Naruto told Sasuke to leave?"

"Mhm." Sakura turned back to her papers. "Said it was unavoidable. I thought you would know if Hanabi told you, you appeared to be looking for someone after the engagement happened-"

Hinata did not breathe.

Finally, with the scribble of Sakura's pen stilled the kunoichi looked up, examining Hinata's carefully controlled expression with care.

"I will come back for those papers..." Hinata began and thinking better of it corrected herself. "... Actually, please have those sent to the Hyuuga Main House, yes?"

"If you come tomorrow, perhaps we can do lunch or-"

"No." Hinata stepped back, feeling the thump of her blood at her jugular and on her eardrums loud enough to muffle her steps as she made space between her friend and herself. "No, I have a lot of things to do, I'm sorry. Once...once the wedding is over."

"All right." Sakura sighed, looking more than just upset about the cancelled lunch. "I was hoping we could talk."

"I know." Hinata swallowed. "Good bye, Sakura."

She turned before Sakura could say more, assuming that if things went as she suspected they must she would never see her again. At least, not as she was now.

* * *

They did no speaking. Out of the two of them Naruto was by far the talker but there was not a lot he wanted to say and so instead, they fought.

So much had happened in so short a time that Sasuke could hardly remember the last good spar he had indulged in besides the one time with Hinata's surprising fluidness. There were no jutsu allowed, no kekkei genkai and no blood, or at least an attempt at no blood.

Under the dying blast of the summer afternoon sun they were soaked and sweating in moments and did not slow until the sun had began it's descent, moving everlong into the horizon as it painted the heavens orange and pink among the blue.

Out of breath and finally feeling somewhat like himself in his own skin Sasuke threw himself down beside his friend on the first grassy patch of shade afforded by the trees that sprouted in intervals around the arena now scratched all over with their battle.

"So." Naruto dared finally, after being sure that it would at least take some effort for Sasuke to dredge up the semblance of annoyance.

"Thank you." Sasuke put in before he lost his nerve, absently he sipped at his water bottle and ignored Naruto's blue eyes so soft on him.

"For?"

"Getting me out of there yesterday." It pained him to clarify almost as much as it pained him to articulate his thanks but Naruto deserved credit where credit was due. He had been robbed of it too much through life not to receive it now, when Sasuke was facing possible erasure.

"Ah." Naruto replied simply. "Don't thank me. What else was I supposed to do, honestly. "

"I...did not realize..." Sasuke continued then, surprising him. "I did not know until-" He paused, remembering the crash of Gaara's mouth against Hinata's and the way sound had died away leaving only the earth quake shatter inside his chest.

"What are you planning to do?" Naruto did not pry for further elaboration on what exactly had been the catalyst. He had seen it. From across the yard on the Hyuuga's engawa as happiness exploded from one of his dearest friends just as it seemed to die in the other.

Sasuke frowned slightly as he shifted on the grass, sliding his fingers through the velvety stems, feeling the catch of the smooth fibres on the callouses of his hands.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Naruto did not have to shout, although he wanted to, to underline his disbelief. "Nothing?"

"Are you not friends with that redheaded monster?" Sasuke turned icily to him. "Should you not be-"

"She looked for you." Naruto snapped, shoving himself to his feet. "She went with you when she felt faint at that dinner, let you support her like it was normal. She let Gaara kiss her and then she looked for you." He rummaged with some agitation through the discarded outer clothing he had shed through their work out for a shirt to throw over his head.

"I know because I was standing where you had been, and she looked at me and around me as though expecting you. And yes, Gaara is my friend so if there's something going on between you and Hinata I would prefer he also know about it before this gets any more complicated."

"I'm engaged." Sasuke replied after a long moment of silence, feeling Naruto's eyes on him at all times.

"Yes, so is she now." Naruto mused, rubbing at his chin thoughtfully as he watched the sun bleed across the sky. "So if something is going to happen, before a wedding takes place is probably the best time."

The scoff that escaped his friend was disbelieving. "No, dobe." Sasuke shoved himself to his feet, thinking about two hungry children back home who would be wondering what was for supper as the shadows began to grow long. "Nothing will happen."

"You have ignored my advice on important matters before." Naruto called as they walked tiredly back the way they had come. "If you recall that did not turn out so well for you."

Eyeing him sideways Sasuke mulled this over. It was not often that the Hokage dared to voice the thing which had stood between them for so long. Once fought out with their fists their issues had been someone else's life.

It held a weight he could not deny hearing him touch on the sore subject, and as they neared the flatlands of the Uchiha he let out a weary sigh.

"I will think on it."

"You best do that fast." Naruto did not slow when they neared his house, walking past it towards the direction of his own home where his wife was likely waiting. "You are running out of time."

Sasuke mused how true that statement was, even though his friend knew not why.

* * *

 ** _I dunno.  
I really don't._**

 ** _Much love anyway,_**

 ** _Inky_**


	17. Chapter 17

"No." Sasu's voice was calm, if a little smug from his place next to the stove watching as Sasuke tried and failed again to turn the oven on. "Not that one."

"I'm not sure your advice was solicited." Sasuke replied tartly, pressing another button on the contraption and watching it beep. Opening the oven door revealed a cold and unforgiving hole and he frowned, slamming it closed.

"That was wrong again."

"Your self preservations skills are lacking." Sasuke put forth then, turning icily to his younger self. "You should work on that."

Sasu wrinkled his nose at him, a habit he had picked up from watching Hina try to think through problems openly. "I have skills."

"Not useful ones."

"Nice ones. You only have mean ones."

Brows raised because to retort at him seemed both childish and dishonest Sasuke let out a long breath through the nose. "If you know how I am _not_ supposed to do this, then perhaps you know how _to_ do it." He waved at the stove. "Why don't you try?"

It was a challenge with an expectation of failure, but as his younger self was prone to do he exceeded expectations. Leaning over casually he pressed a button to turn on the oven, flashing the light warning that an element was hot, and then the temperature.

Disbelieving still Sasuke opened the oven door to find flames dancing merrily along the bottom.

It took all his restraint not to swear.

"Sasuke." Itachi's voice at his back had both Sasukes in attendance turning to look at him. Neji had disappeared and not returned after their heated conversation, and although Sasuke could feel the hair raising tickle of invisible eyes on him upon his return from sparring with Naruto it was not until that moment that Itachi chose to appear.

Sasu did not look at him for longer than a moment, turning his eyes away with a frown.

"Not the best time." Sasuke replied, turning back to the oven as well. There was fish stuffed with vegetables and rice in the fridge in neat rows on a tray, ready to be shoved into the oven for roasting. Beside him Sasu picked up a lemon and handed it to his elder for slicing.

"Time is one thing we don't have a lot of right now." Itachi continued, aware as he had been from the beginning of the younger Sasu's reluctance to look at him long. It would not have been a difficult problem to solve for a child such as Sasu that his brother being see through meant his brother was likely no more.

As only a child can, he had taken to avoiding his post mortem existence altogether.

"I am considering the options." Sasuke retorted. "There's nothing much more to be done."

"There... may be more." Itachi dared finally, willing his sibling to turn to look at him again. Sasuke complied, setting the knife he had been using down on the cutting board slowly.

"Such as?"

Eyes flickering to the still and watching child behind him Itachi said nothing, waiting.

"Sasu, go wake up Hina from her nap." Sasuke finally relented, sliding the child from the counter and to the floor easily. The boy let his gaze flicker from one face to the other, assessing quickly before moving to do as he was bid. The fact that there was no obstinate argument to counter the request hinted more at his curiosity than anything else.

Watching him disappear out the kitchen door way Itachi sighed. "He does not look at me if he can help it."

Sasuke, who had turned back to the cutting board replied by chopping down on the lemon, coating his hands in the citrus as he breathed in the fresh scent.

"Neither do you." Itachi added after a moment, softly.

The lemon was in dire straights. Half butchered, half ignored it was neither turning into lemonade nor being spared as Sasuke dropped his knife again and hung his head, leaning hard into the counter.

"I don't know how it is that you survive being here at all. Neji told Hinata that it..."

"Pained him?" Itachi prompted, studying his hands and their unreliable make up. "It does. But there are worse things."

"Oh?" Sasuke lifted his head finally to examine his brother, watching as he studied his see through hands with curiosity.

"Watching those we love suffer." Itachi raised his eyes back to him. "Which is why, we have some things to discuss."

"Neji is not wrong, Itachi." Sasuke shook his head, turning back to the counter tiredly. "He's not wrong about what it would mean to approach her."

Letting out a long sigh his brother moved to the table, plopping onto the chair and leaning his chin on his palm as he thought. "No, he played that part very well."

"He's not playing." Sasuke muttered, annoyed to be defending the vexing thing that was Neji Hyuuga.

"We're all playing." Itachi shrugged. "This is a bet, there's a winner and therefore it's a game and what I want, more than anything is for you to be the winner." His eyes which had haunted so many dreams after being the source of Sasuke's earliest aspirations were now eerie before him.

It did not lessen the deadliness that Itachi had wielded with calm and ease in life, not in the slightest.

Sasuke frowned. "What is it you and Neji have been doing while you are gone?"

"Ah." Itachi nodded. "You are finally asking the right questions."

* * *

The intention had been to go to Sasuke's house. There was an urge in her limbs to be with the children at all times, an itch at the back of her mind that brought all three of her confidants to mind.

She wanted to talk with Sasu some more about how to grow things and what things grew during which times of year. She wanted to study the way Hina scribbled her letters on paper to gage how well she would handle reading scrolls and learning new things from written information.

She wanted to sit across from Sasuke and ask him how he could not be furious with her for destroying their past, their present and maybe their future.

She wanted to also not ask, but watch instead how he smiled minutely, at Hina's stuttered observations and Sasu's articulated thoughts.

How did she want to spend the last of her days?

The answer hid beneath a thin see through film in her mind. She could see it's shape out of the corner of her eye but to engage it would be disaster and so instead she did not go to the Uchiha land, but made a beeline towards the library, searching for things to occupy her hands and mind.

It was past dinner time, with the sun having done it's dramatic death in the heavens as Lady Ama's brightest star gave way to the dark of Lord Susa for the night. The library was thankfully lacking in patrons though the few that were present smiled at her with silent congratulations she did not understand until she remembered that she was in fact engaged.

To the beloved Kazekage of Sand, no less. War hero, dear friend of their own Hokage and feared protege.

Thankful that no one was approaching to actually speak with her she pressed through the endless shelves, searching out the basic principles of gleaning foods from the forest, the guides for edible herb and fungi in their region, the fundamentals of gardening.

With ink and parchment in hand she settled at the tables hidden in the corner among the legislature for small businesses and began the process of choosing which items could be taught in the short time she had to those she would be leaving behind.

It did the trick of keeping her mind from a pair of dark eyes staring fixedly at her first thing upon waking. Even if only for a short time.

* * *

It felt wrong to be glad that her sister was not at dinner, and yet the feeling was there, sitting inside her ribcage ornery as an old bird unwilling to sing.

Unpleasant though it was Hanabi could not help it. Across from her Gaara and her father spoke in equally calming tones, requesting tea and sake at polite intervals from the servants as they ate their supper unaware that across from them Hanabi shifted food from place to place on her plate with her chopsticks as she scolded herself for her gladness at Hinata's absence.

"You are strangely quiet today, Daughter." Hiashi cut in after a moment of silent chewing. Gaara who had noted the silence but made a point not to pay it attention now looked up, fixing her with his piercing green eyes so that she fumbled for a moment before gracing them both with a wide smile.

"Ah, just... preoccupied with the wedding as usual. There is a lot to do."

"Hm." Hiashi hummed as he sipped his tea. "Are you needing more help? Surely you have enough staff to assist? What about Hinata?"

Her sister's name only flickered annoyance briefly through her face and was not caught by her father's absent minded gaze half focused on his plate.

Gaara on the other hand straightened at the mild displeasure that had so quickly passed through her features.

"Ah, I think Hinata is doing plenty." She cleared her throat. "It is what it is, planning a wedding."

Even if she had wanted to, she would not be asking Hinata for help, not until she could get a better hold of her emotions. They had always been her greatest weakness, those moments when feeling overwrought her logic and sense. All day she had been fighting with them, anger, frustration and disbelief.

Sometimes they were directed at herself for being the kind of sister to doubt someone like Hinata, who had loved her so completely and for so long.

Sometimes it was directed at Hinata for her secretive nature, her quietness and shyness which in the wrong light appeared almost sly.

Sometimes it was directed at the damn maids who had left her sister's room at the same time as Hanabi had for dinner, stepping out of her own chambers to find them murmuring to each other in hissing tones that could only mean they were gossiping.

Annoyed at their lack of acknowledgement and the fact that her sister was surely the topic for such heated discussion Hanabi had stormed towards them, hands on her hips and chin raised in displeasure to demand what they hissed so intensely about.

At first their pale faces and wide eyes had appeared to be sheepish and embarrassed but after a moment Hanabi detected fear, and one of them with her hands firmly clasped behind her back had blood rushing fast to her face to signal wrong doing.

"Give me what you have." Hanabi had demanded, hand outstretched and tone imperious. "Hand it over now."

"Lady Hanabi, I beg you, it-"

"I will not ask again."

Lady Hinata's room got a thorough cleaning only a handful of times a week. Usually the only maids to walk through were ones who put her futon away and aired her room, changing sheets and sweeping, tidying any other disorder happened every other day.

When they had opened the closet and found a pile of discarded clothing on the floor the maids had chattered that Lady Hinata might start behaving a bit more like Lady Hanabi now that she too was engaged, preoccupied with wedding plans and stressed by the publicity of the thing and therefore too absent minded to be as neat as she used to be.

Their jokes had been gentle. Lady Hinata was a favorite, and picking up after her was hardly a chore compared to what other maids endured.

That was of course until they lifted the clothing from the floor, examining what was clearly a man's shirt and trousers with confusion.

The confusion faded when the Uchiha fan was found on the back.

"Lady Hanabi." The maid holding the shirt behind her clenched it tight. "Please, it is just dirty laundry, it is nothing to-"

Frowning, Hanabi examined the black shirt. "Why were you two whispering so ardently about such a thing, it's just a-"

At the sight of the fan on the back Hanabi stared blankly, blinking her pale eyes as she took in the emblem that would one day join the Hyuuga flame on the sleeves and collars of her own clothing.

The long silence that followed was broken by the sound of steps heading towards them down the corridor, and Gaara's voice at her back calling out a hello.

"You are right. It is just laundry." Hanabi balled up the shirt, tossing it carelessly at the girl before her as she turned away. "So stop dawdling and do your job."

"Yes, ma'am."

Smile bright and eyes shining she had welcomed Gaara back from spending time with the Nara's, furious at herself for the way her heart was beating, the way her hands were sweating, even the way she had treated the maids.

There was an explanation, of this she was sure. Her sister would never...

She would never...

"Hanabi?" Gaara asked from across the dinner table, brows drawn together much like her father beside him. Snapping out of her reverie Hanabi startled, lips parted mildly at realizing she had been spoken to without replying.

"Sorry... I'm so sorry. What was the question?"

"You should get to bed early tonight." Hiashi ordered gently. "This will not do. You are the bride, not the wedding planner."

Hanabi forced a laugh, aware of Gaara's lack of amusement in spite of it. "Right. You are right of course, Father. I think I will retire now, if it's all the same to you."

"I will also." Gaara began, moving to stand.

"Oh don't, I'm all right." Hanabi waved a hand, panicked briefly by his blatant disregard for her words as he followed her to the door. Behind him Hiashi called, "Thank you, Kazekage-sama."

There was a lot in his tone and Hanabi paused to watch her soon to be brother in law and father exchange knowing looks which she did not fully understand.

"Come on." Gaara muttered, urging her on after a moment. "Let's go."

In the hall Hanabi walked with her head held high, perhaps even a little higher than usual. The eyes of the servants on her body made her skin break out in goosebumps and her stomach writhe. Were they looking at her too long? Were they whispering as she passed?

"What is the matter, Hanabi?"

"I'm exhausted." Hanabi sighed, dramatic as always. With her bedroom door approaching she gripped her feelings in an iron fist, unwilling to let them free. Of all people to know of her foolish discomfort Gaara was the worst one.

"Ah." He mused lightly, slowing as they neared her doorway. "You do not want to talk."

Her jaw clenched involuntarily at his statement as she fiddled with her door knob. "Has anyone told you that you notice too much?"

"No." Gaara replied. "Rather the opposite. My sister in particular has been training me hard in subtle communication."

"Well, for gods sake." Hanabi grumbled, amused despite herself. "Tell her to stop."

Gaara laughed, cocking his head slightly at her as though she might make more sense sideways. "I do hope you will tell her so yourself. She thinks I am beyond help."

Sighing deeply Hanabi allowed herself to look at him, at the interested way his eyes lingered on her features and searched out for more.

Always more, with Gaara. Where others required she contain herself so as to make her presence tolerable he went the other way.

"You know, after you asked Hinata to marry you at the party I couldn't find my own fiance."

This seemed to not be what he was expecting, and Hanabi was gratified that at least he could not read her mind completely.

"Oh." He frowned. "Uchiha-san left?"

"Must have." Hanabi continued. "I did not see him after that."

Gaara's frown intensified. "He did not say good bye to you?"

"I haven't heard from him since." Hanabi smirked without humor, hanging her head so that she bumped her forehead to her door. "Ugh, I apologize. I should not be discussing this at all."

"Hanabi... why are you going through with this if you are not-"

"Oh no." Hanabi straightened. "See, this is why I should not be talking about this. I knew who Sasuke Uchiha was when I was told of the possible match. I had a say in the matter." She glared at her door as though it were the source of all her frustrations. "I knew what kind of an agreement I was walking into. No one forced me."

Gaara blinked, thinking back on a conversation very similar to this one he had had recently. Unnerved by their likeness he swallowed hard.

"Perhaps it was the wrong choice? Perhaps you need to reconsider." It hurt to even say the words out loud, to consider being rejected after acceptance was worse than being rejected outright.

Hanabi smiled wide, hiding behind her grin so that her confusion and sadness did not show. She had been fine with her lot, happy with the arrangement despite Sasuke's chilly demeanor up until the point that Gaara of the Sands had arrived, with gentle words and his soothing nature.

It suddenly grated to be slotted for marriage to someone disinterested, when Gaara's smile alone could brighten her day.

"I do not reconsider." Hanabi mused, opening her door. "I make choices, and I stick to them. It is how I was raised."

Gaara's frown did not waver, nor did the obvious compassion on his face. "I don't know that I can condone that. I made choices once which needed to be revoked." His fingers went instinctively to the scarred kanji on his forehead, aware that her eyes followed the flicker of his touch. "Nothing is permanent without effort."

"I do love that about you." It came out of her before she could draw it back, startling her enough that her face heated to pink despite herself. True to form however, she plowed on. "I love that you are so willing to change."

Before he could reply, muted both by the flush of her cheeks as by his own hot face she stepped into her room, closing the door with a quiet good night.

* * *

Instead of sleeping he had counted stars up on the roof and tried not to think about how much he hoped Hinata would sneak from her house like she'd done once before to seek out his company so late at night.

Itachi had made it a point to leave him alone after the conversation in the kitchen, allowing him to feed the children, bathe and change them before tucking them into bed in peace. Or as peaceful as his mind could be considering the circumstances.

Itachi was a brilliant strategist, had always been. So anything that he suggested, however kindly Sasuke was bound to distrust. There was a goal in his mind, one which Sasuke had to admit involved what Itachi considered Sasuke's happiness.

That however was not as decided as Itachi thought it was. What did Sasuke want?

It seemed clear that what he would want most would be Hinata, the reciprocation of that which wounded his heart so badly only the night before. In a different life perhaps he would have fought for it, desperate for the kind of connection he had long ago assumed he would not be privy to.

But in this life, in this circumstance even to ask her for an answer might hurt her. Neji had been right, what kind of love would he be offering? A selfish one, poised to make her choose between him and everyone else she held dear. Still, he needed to hear her decided no for the final breaking of his heart, the ending of the wager, the continuance of their timeline.

And he was sure she would say no. Certain of it like he was of Sasu's affection for Hina, certain of it's depth and ability to become a permanent fixture in his life, if only he was given a chance.

That was where Itachi's cleverness came in, his attempts to maneuver him to do what he wanted sly enough it was taking Sasuke with all his own wit time to untangle the mess of options.

"To not tell Hinata how you feel, to not offer her the chance to make up her own mind is a mistake. The world as you know it will change. The disappearance of you, of Hinata Hyuuga at the ages of the children could have consequences we do not understand. The Konoha you know now might not be what they are forced to live in." Itachi had looked at him long and hard, letting that sink in. "Are you willing to risk such catastrophic changes when there's the possibility that she would be willing to choose you above everyone else?"

"She won't." Sasuke whispered to himself, tracing constellations slowly through the heavens with one finger as he thought. "She won't."

Hinata would not be Hinata if she did choose him. He would have miscalculated, misunderstood the kind of person she was if she picked him, sacrificing all else for her own joy.

Lord Susa would win. Sasuke had as much as decided it be so. He nearly had already. With a hand pressed to his chest to soothe the ever present squeeze of his heart he climbed back down and into the house to try to sleep. It would not take much to shatter him. He was already mostly broken.

Inside the children slept once more together, a minor but appreciated relief considering the wound Sasu had carried with him two days past. Absently Sasuke settled at the edge of the bed among the cool light of the moon, sliding long fingers through Hina's dark hair. It was strange how easy it was to get accustomed to their presence. What had once been a bother was now a blessing, albeit an exhausting one.

Tomorrow he would teach Sasu to read the stars as Itachi had once taught him. He would with Hina at his side tell them the stories of the constellations and what they meant and Hinata would approve because in her eyes it would be a skill required for their survival.

But Sasuke would do it for the sake of letting them appreciate how even in the fright and dark of night beautiful things still glittered and shone.

If only very briefly.

* * *

It confused her that sleep came easy. Nights of endless tossing and turning were familiar to her, and even exhausted from the battle she and Sasuke had been waging in secret some of the last few weeks had been dotted with insomnia.

Now, when the final days were at hand and she had made her peace with her fate sleep came easy. Arriving home late had rendered her free to go straight to her bedroom, and although she had requested some tea and rice balls to be sent to her room she assumed they arrived after she had fallen asleep, crowded by the different notes she had been taking at the library and the stacks of books she had borrowed.

It was in that way which Gaara found her. Dawn was yet to touch the heavens, although the navy blue of night was starting to ebb to a fainter hue when he knocked on her door and woke her with a start.

Unprepared and groggy with the depth of her sleep she stumbled to the door, startled by his amused half smile at the sight of her rubbing sleep from her lashes. "G-gaara-kun."

"I was not sure if you were going to be joining me for training." He let out a sound that might have been a soft laugh, and Hinata colored rapidly, adjusting her sleeping yukata with nervous fingers. "But you do seem wholly unprepared. I'm sorry to have woken you."

"No, no. I... I must be catching up from before." Hinata mustered, stepping into her room and leaving the door open though the invitation to enter could not be coaxed from her throat. "I'll just change."

Gathering things from her closet, she hurried into the bathroom, listening through the door to the silence for a few awkward beats before he spoke. Unsure if it was better or worse that he was talking she winced.

"Are you studying something?" His steps, though quiet were not being carefully shrouded and with her ears and training she listened as he neared her futon, examining what she assumed was the books she had left spread over her blankets after falling asleep reading her summarized notes.

"Uh...just... brushing up." She admitted, stepping out of the bathroom with her training clothes on and her yukata on her arm.

"These do seem beneath your abilities." Gaara noted, examining the spine of the Beginners Guide to Medicinal Herbs.

"Oh, I...sometimes I just...it helps me remember the principles, reading them occasionally." She managed, pulling her hair into a ponytail as she approached. "Shall we go?"

Thankfully her bedroom door had been purposefully left wide open and though he had ventured into her room he seemed timid, as hesitant to move within it's confines as a doe in the open.

She paused as she adjusted her clothing one more time to watch him examining her chambers with open curiosity.

"You like light." He murmured, eyeing the many windows that lined one side of her room. Hinata had never thought of it that way, although it certainly was true. A room with less windows would have had to boast a very pretty view indeed for her to consider it over her present accomodation.

"I do." She mused, looking out once more at the slowly changing night. "I like waking with the sun, or before it, if possible."

"Hm." Gaara hummed, thinking of the blazing sunrise of Suna and the Kazekage's abode where tile and stone, glass and metal drew coolness during the night and brightness during the day.

Together they moved through to the corridor, and Hinata grabbed her bag as she went, tucking a handful of paper squares from the Crane Folding Party that she had requested from the maids into one of her bag's pouches. There were still many hundred more to go before they managed to fold 1001 and Hanabi had not the patience for it. Later, when she went to Sasuke's she would teach the children how to fold.

* * *

He heard her enter the house and as the door closed his body tightened, unconsciously curling around Sasu's little shape.

Sasu too heard her arrival, eyes flickering open to study Big Sasuke, smile quirked at the ringing of pots and pans in the kitchen. Their absence had triggered such sadness that now it brought a painful sort of joy.

"Big Hinata is here." He whispered, scrambling over Sasuke's side in careless jabs of his limbs that made his elder version wince.

"Watch it."

"You're too big." Sasu snapped back, elbowing him perhaps unnecessarily on his way off the bed.

"Tch." Sasuke hissed as the boy disappeared, bare feet padding softly on the wood floor. Woken by the rustling and hissing Hina stretched languidly, nustling up to Sasuke's now free side for some extra warmth.

"I have to get up, Hina." He murmured, though despite his words he readjusted himself to fit her more comfortably at his side.

"Not yet."

"I have to shower."

"Okay." Still wrapped around his arm with her eyes happily closed the girl remained unmoved, drawing a smirk from Sasuke's lips before he pressed his mouth to her forehead, breathing in the sweet smell that always seemed to linger on her hair.

"How do you smell like icing sugar?"He inquired, drawing back. "Do you eat sweets during the night?"

"No!" Hina's eyes flew open at the accusation. "No, I sleep!"

"You sound defensive." He continued seriously, sitting up and moving towards the bathroom. "That likely means you're guilty."

"U-uchiha-san! I promise! I promise I don't-" Hina cried, catching finally his smile before he stepped through the door of the bathroom, missing as she deflated in relief back onto the covers.

Downstairs Sasu sat on the counter, not unlike his previous perch during dinner where his instructions for Sasuke had nearly got the fish burnt to choals.

"You seem happy." Hinata smiled, wiping her hands on her apron before threading her fingers through his hair, trying and failing to tame the wild mane.

Sasu smiled, cheeks rosy with her attention. "Yeah. It's a nice day."

"Mm." Hinata hummed, examining the sleep at the corners of his eyes and wiping it away deftly. "Summer time is lovely in Konoha. Some places it's so hot it's hard to breathe." She paused, blinking in surprise as she realized in her mind the rolling sand dunes of Suna came to mind. She had only visited there once in the summer months.

While in Konoha the mornings and evenings cooled to a delicious chill, in Suna the sun blasted everything through the day so that even at night the ground released heatwaves from the stones.

She had suffered through that visit, struggling with burns, with chapped lips and then been covered in freckles for months after so her sister teased relentlessly.

It was easy for Hanabi who tanned into a golden beauty in the sun and seemed incapable of burning.

"You... are bleeding." Sasu put in suddenly, his face pinched with the worry as he looked at her face.

Hinata blinked, surprised as she reached to touch her brow where his eyes were so fixated. Gaara was always gentle with her through their training, working more on their speed and accuracy, their strength and stamina than actual fighting.

Still, sparring did come with consequences sometimes and a miscalculation on her part had resulted in a kick clipping her forehead. At the time it had been nothing, she had wiped it away and assumed it would scab closed.

Perhaps she had split it when rubbing her hand across her face.

"It's fine." She soothed, gathering paper towel to press onto the bloody trickle. "It's okay."

Sasu did not seem to be convinced, his eyes tracing the place where the paper soaked in the crimson of her blood, looking away only to pin Hinata with a stare too old for his face.

"Where do you go?"

Hinata stirred absently at the batter she had made for crepes on the counter, eyeing the one cooking on the stove idly.

"To train, mostly. Sometimes the hospital to work." She pulled the paper towel back, examining the gore there before sighing and pressing it back onto her face.

"Train." Sasu whispered, the familiar word bringing up images of his brother leaving regularly, tapping his forehead in goodbye.

"Mhm. Don't worry, Sasu. It was an accident. Gaara-kun is very gentle."

"Gaara." His words were getting quieter, his voice so young and high still in his youth deepening with emotion. Hinata did not have to look at him to know his displeasure, and when she did she sighed, cupping his cheek at the downturn of his mouth.

"He's my...friend." She explained.

"He made you bleed." This was as far as he was concerned, an unforgivable offense. There was weight in his statement, and as she watched his face flushed and not with bashfulness.

Trying and failing to smooth the frown on his brows with a finger Hinata sighed. "We were training, it's kind of like playing. It's not-"

"I would not make Hina-chan bleed."

Hinata breathed in, studying the many emotions battling on his face before nodding. "No, I know. I know that, Sasu. I-"

"Good morning." Sasuke's voice drew her gaze, and she forced a smile weakly.

"Ah, good morning-"

"You're bleeding." He cut in, placing Hina in a chair gently before walking over to examine her forehead. "What happened?"

"N-nothing!" She almost laughed, it was strangely unnerving being under the scrutiny of both Sasukes but more unnerving still was Sasuke's hand pushing back her bangs before taking the paper towel from her and pressing it firmly onto the still bleeding crack.

"What has that idiot been doing?"

"Sasuke!" Hinata scolded, taking the paper from him and pulling back. "It was an accident- its training, things happen."

"It's going to bruise." He informed her as if she didn't know. "That was bad."

"I bruise rather easily."Hinata defended still, turning back to the crepes. "It's not bad,it's fine."

Strangely in sync the boys looked at each other as if to share the displeasure they were feeling.

"I brought some books." Hinata continued in an attempt to change the subject. "I stopped at the library yesterday. And I thought today we could go to the pond, I would like to give Hina another chance to test her water walking."

"Oh." Hina breathed from the table, remembering her last trip to the pond and the rush of her feet along the tree trunk as she managed finally to make the chakra in her body comply to her wishes. "Yes, please."

"All right." Sasuke acquiesced as he picked Sasu up and placed him on his own chair. Hinata blinked rapidly at his tone, glancing at him as she poured coffee into a mug before placing it at the table.

"Are you coming with us?"

"Yes." He did not look at her as he answered, focused instead on placing dishes before the children to distract Sasu from pouting. "Naruto he...He knows I need some time."

Sakura's face, and her knowingness as she commented on Naruto's strange orders to Sasuke made Hinata grow still, thoughts tangled together in a knot too difficult to unravel.

Turning back to the stove she poured batter into the pan, twisting the skillet in her hand so that it smoothed into a flawless pale crepe. "I quit my job at the hospital." She offered finally. "I figured we should spend as much as time as we could with them for the next two weeks. There's a lot they need to know."

With her back to him it was easier to watch her, to trace the curve from her shoulder blades to the small of her back and the twists of her black hair at the nape of her neck where she had tied it back.

Sasuke did not agree or disagree. It was the best he could do to avoid lying.

* * *

Clearly there was a determination in him not to discuss the obvious. Sasuke as she knew him now was not talkative by any stretch of the imagination and this she had taken into consideration. A long winded conversation about their predicament and all the lamentations that came with it would have been out of character for him.

Just like avoiding the issue completely seemed out of character.

Still, any mention of the wager was disregarded or rerouted. His eyes and face would drift from her own as she attempted to broach the subject.

Instead he would sigh "Later," softly and without malice. Focused with an intensity that was clearly pointed he led the children through basic chakra exercises, adjusting limbs on Sasu at intervals to better align his stance, leaving most of the teaching for Hina to Hinata herself.

At break, when the sun was at it's highest and the children's focus was impossible to maintain they let them go, watching as with hands full of rice balls they ran with giggles and shouts to the pond to dip their tired feet in the cool water.

The hazel trees were a welcome shade in the heat at noon. Even with their umbrella arms stretched above to shield them from Lady Ama's onslaught the day felt thick and stuffy, inducing thoughts of naps.

Where the sun did pass through the branches and leaves of the summer green the pollen lit itself to golden flecks, dotted through with the lazy buzz of bees and ladybugs so interested in the aphids that were populous on the plum trees that dotted the grove of hazel.

With the children distracted and little to divert the conversation Hinata bit the inside of her cheek, eyeing Sasuke as he let himself settle warily with his back to a tree stump, face turned decidedly towards the kids splashing in the water.

"You can talk about it now, if you wish." He smiled a little as he said this, watching her flood with blood as he surveyed her tense shoulders and bitten lip. "You've been fretting about it all day."

Swallowing, Hinata settled on her knees before him hesitatingly. "How are you not fretting?" Cocking her head slightly she watched as he ripped a long bit of grass from the roots of the stump, twirling it idly through his fingers.

"I am not pleased with the situation, if that's what you mean."

"I thought you would be angry at me." She countered. "I was our last chance-"

"Our only chance, considering how we went about doing this. How _I_ went about doing this." He corrected quickly, shaking his head before turning back to Sasu and Hina's play. "This is not your fault."

Silent now that the topic was free for deliberation Hinata sighed, poking a dandelion head to set the spores dancing through the air.

"What was it you wanted to talk about?" He finally asked when she seemed uninterested in continuing.

"I thought... I suppose I figured we needed a plan for the next two weeks." She admitted softly. "Less, actually. A week and a half if you count today."

"Things become unimportant, do they not? When you're facing disappearing." He shrugged, sighing as he turned back to look at her. "What kind of plan could we come up with that is worth stressing over? These are the last days. How do you want to spend them?"

Point blank the question was a rock thrown through glass, on the other side of the clouded surface of her mind she had known what the last days would look like for her, what she would have chosen.

It would have been easy to say the words, sitting less than a foot away her hand did not have long to travel to reach his own, to feel his fingers along her skin.

 _"Here, with them... with you."_

Fool. Fool. Fool. Fool.

How do you want to spend the last days?

"With...them." She managed, swallowing the rest like she would shards of glass.

Sasuke's gaze was steady, black Uchiha eyes intent on her own and for a terrible moment she thought he might be able to see what she dared not look at closely herself hiding within her mind.

In the end he nodded, smiled in a way that made her think more of sadness than joy and leaned back against the wood behind him, closing his eyes.

"I thought so."

She kept her eyes down, on the grass and the smell of rich earth and summer heat. Kept her hands tangled in the roots lest they move, and touch and reach that which was unreachable.

* * *

Afternoon came as lazy as the rest of the day. It spilled like honey, sticky golden light, orange hues, crimson splashes across the sky tainting everything.

The path back home was quiet, buzzing with the crickets starting to dare a song or two despite the sun still shining in the west.

Ahead of them Hina and Sasu ran, sliding down the embankment on either side of the path that was smooth with soft vibrant grass. At the base the tangled threat of blackberries made a wild mane and from the reachable branches they gathered handfuls of fruit, staining themselves purple and blue as they gorged on the sweetness.

"They won't have room for dinner." Sasuke chidded, although he did not stop them and Hinata smiled. "Who wants vegetables when you can have berries right off the vine though?"

"I suppose."

"They seem... happy." Hinata continued, studying their giggling shapes. From her vantage point Sasu shoved a berry into Hina's mouth and burst into laughter at the pinched expression on her face when sourness rather than sweetness exploded on her tongue.

"Happier than I recall being." Sasuke agreed, listening to the rustle of the gravel at their feet.

Hinata could not help but turn to him then, pale eyes unspeakably bright in the light of the dusk threading through her iris. Stilled by the sight of her Sasuke paused and looked away sharply.

"I... remember bumping into you." She dared, and although he was clearly listening his eyes remained on the path ahead. "We were...quite young. There were fireworks." She tried to remember, thinking back. "And crickets."

It was that last comment that drew his gaze, remembering the little girl with wide eyes, the smile with which he had welcomed her as he recognized the face which had loomed above on the Hyuuga Compound wall. Crickets had made her jump, surprise on her features as they dashed around her through the grass and it had made him laugh.

"How did I forget you?"

Hinata breathed in slowly, mouth and eyes equally sad. She knew, of course why. There had been blood in his home, there had been death in her own. And before either of them could think to reach for each other years had passed.

So many years that the next time they met, across the expanse of a classroom filled with vibrant happy faces their eyes did not linger.

"Uchiha-san!" Hina struggled up the hill, drawing both their gazes as she ran in their direction. "I got a, we found some- here." She offered a handful of berries in her stained palms, as sweet as the smile on her face shining brightly.

"You are a mess." He pointed out, taking a berry anyway.

Hina grinned, offering Hinata one as well before rushing back to Sasu who claimed to have found a rabbit hole.

"I don't think she will forget Sasu." Hinata offered after a moment. "Not this time."

She had thought that she was past praying, but still the words came unbidden to her mind.

 _Please, gods. Don't let me forget this time._

* * *

 _* **Offers weak shrug***_

 ** _Thank you for all the lovely messages my darlings. It was such a nice thing to wake up to so many excited comments. I realized today that I have been working on Switch-a-Roo for over a year. How strange is that?_**

 ** _My brain is a little overwhelmed with it, I think. It's a convoluted story, and on the side burner I also have Vital and Paint With Words still simmering away._**

 _ **I just wanted to say that I appreciate not just the patience but the fact that you guys wait for such long periods between my posting. I wish I knew how to maintain a more steady rhythm but to be honest with you my writing is a lot like catching a cold. I have no idea what caused it for sure, just that it was germs caught somewhere.**_

 ** _ **Much love to** you all, _**

**_Inky_**


	18. Chapter 18

Things were not difficult the way they once were, when he had been alive. Back then the pull of gravity and the exhaustion of a body dragged on the goals he had set within his mind were difficult obstacles. Back then, he was at the mercy of the day and weather, always wondering if he would still be breathing at the sun set.

Now things were a different kind of difficult, less easy to quantify. More slippery.

"Damned." Itachi grunted at Neji's side, stopping with one ghostly hand at his chest. There was no reason for him to reach there. No heart beat within but still the habits of a life long lived died harder than the person who lived it. Somewhere more tangible than this in between realm Sasuke was aching and the ache spiralled through the realms, sluicing through Itachi's side.

"It does not get better." Neji deadpanned, scanning the sand dunes on which they stood. "You only have Sasuke to contend with. Imagine having my family."

Itachi's wince did not leave his face, determined to stay where it was to hide the sympathy that was threatening to show on his features.

"He can't continue like this forever." the Uchiha muttered thinly, deciding to ignore Neji's comment. "He's going to break and then this will truly be over, before we can do anything to help them."

"Them." Neji's scoff was disbelieving, turning back to his companion with narrowed Hyuuga eyes. "Don't pretend you have my cousin in mind. You have made it clear it's Sasuke's happiness you care about, and damned be all the rest."

Above them the sky twisted and pulled like something was stuck beneath it's mantle, desperate to get out. Crimson smears of ancient sunsets meeting long ago dawns splattered among the navy of night, as if all the different kinds of skies had been gathered in this one place as a blanket for something that nightmared.

Itachi winced at the heavens, uncertain of what this sudden tension heralded. They had met no one in this realm. It was empty but for the rolling sand of Suna and the eerily silent forests of Konoha. No birds or bees or animals of any kind broke the silence. Only the whistle of the wind through the sand and the irritated snap of Neji's anger. If it were not for the fact a passing spirit had hinted that a god might live in the fabric of this existence they would have left immediately.

Perhaps they should have.

"It's not like you're holding Sasuke's happiness that high on your priority list." Itachi commented, aware that like him Neji was stumbling back as if he could get further from the sky still writhing like the skin of a pregnant tummy with too many children aching to be born.

"Not everyone can prioritize the Uchiha." Neji grumbled, beginning to feel the pressure of a coming god the way one feels thunder rushing in over flat lands.

"If you weren't so fearful that Hinata would consider him I would be in despair." Itachi's voice was a whisper then, because even as he spoke, drawing Neji's eyes to him sharply the sky tore and something sinister began to spill in oozing tendrils of black pus from the shredded clouds. "But your own fear has betrayed what is obviously a possibility."

More seriously however he added. "I think it's time to go."

"Run." Neji hissed, watching as what was turning into a hand, clawed and terrible began to grasp for purchase on the sky. Following that was the curve of a shoulder, and the flowing hairline of a head.

Whatever god or demon this was, they did not want it's help.

Turning tail they sprinted, panting as though they had lungs that needed oxygen out of habit even though at the last moment when the world they inhabited began to burn with acid all they had to do was evaporate to dew drops tossed in the wind.

* * *

It was rare that sleep left her rested. Sleep of late had been the kind of rest of the exhausted, making her wake with eyes still bleary and bones aching. It was, without her knowing the sleep of abruptly gained motherhood.

There are more than one kind of motherhood sleep, however. There was also the kind that filled your heart to brimming, and quieted one's thoughts and worries with the sheer reality of loving.

This was also motherhood, and it had rendered her unconscious in a most lovely way. Waking from this sleep proved delicious. Hinata stretched until her joints creaked and muscles pulled long and elegant as a bowstring. Sighing deeply she blinked at the light fingers running up into the navy of the night sky, starting to smudge out all the stars.

Just as abruptly as motherhood had been thrust upon her, so did the maids arrive. Two sharp knocks on her door set Hinata to stiffening and then the door flung open to reveal a tiny army of women armed with brooms and dust pans and rags.

"Good morning, Hinata-sama."

"Ah!" Hinata muffled halfway, scrambling from her futon in a such a hurry that her hair tangled in front of her face in a less than graceful manner. "G-good morning!"

Desperately holding her yukata together at the neck she smiled thinly, annoyed with herself for sleeping in. There was no time for a shower, she decided as one maid vanished into the bathroom and another began to pull the covers from her futon to fold.

There was no place for her in the mechanics of tidying up her own bedroom. Feeling distinctly out of place she side stepped and dodged moving bodies busy with disinfecting and battling dust.

"Ah... I'll... be... on my way then." She managed, scrambling backwards into her closet and shutting the door for a moment's peace.

Inside the cracks of sunlight filtered in sharp lines to brighten her clothing and half blind she rummaged for a tunic comfortable enough to wear on a day long picnic and training session at the pond.

The children were improving rapidly in their chakra control and if there was something she wanted to accomplish before disappearing into nothing it was to encourage the confidence which Hina was showing. Sasu already had his hands full keeping himself alive he didn't need the paralyzed and fearful version of herself to care for as well in their unstable future.

She had to help in any way she could.

Grabbing the first thing on a hanger Hinata jumped as the doors to the closet were opened to a maid's surprised face. "Oh! There you are, Hinata-sama! I wondered where you had gone."

"Ah." Hinata hummed desperately, pushed like a child found out into the hangers of her closet. "I... I was just going to change."

"Hm." The maid nodded, eyeing the fabric in her hands before tugging it out of her grip gently. In a whisper she refolded it, keeping her eyes away from Hinata's face. "Perhaps not that one, though? May I suggest this beautiful blue tunic? It's going to be a very hot day."

It took a moment for Hinata to understand why she was being told not to wear a black training shirt, and only after the maid reached by her head to replace the material onto the shelf did the Uchiha fan emblazoned on the back become clear to her still sleepy eyes.

If there had been blood in her cheeks from embarrassment it was there no longer. Instead cold seeped through her palms and feet, tingling at her lips.

"Oh... Oh... that- I was... it was just borrowed for- when I-" The infernal stutter of her youth rushed in like a tsunami and the maid shrugged, as if unaffected before passing her the blue tunic she had suggested and pointing to the bathroom nodded her head. "I think the bathroom should be clear for you to change in, Hinata-sama."

Hinata could recognize a lifeline when it was offered and desperately she nodded her head in thanks. How could she possibly explain Sasuke's clothing in her closet to anyone? Let alone the maids?

Feeling like an ant beneath a magnifying glass she scurried to the bathroom and shut the door, breathing hard into her hands.

No sooner had the door closed than another knock echoed from the room, light and polite and now famliar after so many days heralding the start of her day.

"Kazekage-sama." The maid by her closet called out, perhaps a little louder than she might usually speak. "Good morning."

"Good morning... I was in search of Hinata..? Is she-?"

"I...I'll be right out!" Hinata called through the door, frantically running hands through her hair and fighting with the knot on her yukata belt at her waist.

Whatever peace she had been offered for those few seconds upon waking she clenched them in her mind like clasping the hands of a dear friend. Clearly it was the only reprieve she would be having all day.

* * *

They usually arrived with a soft mist and a touch of fog. Sometimes they glistened like dew in the morning sun, but never had they arrived the way they did that day, in a salt spray of high tide with the touch of a storm behind it.

The chill of the two ghosts splashing into his room was as effective as a bucket of cold water and Sasuke startled from his bed and nearly onto the floor. Had he been someone else he might have ended up on his behind, nursing a sore backside but training was useful for more things than killing and instead he landed in a crouch on the other side of the bed, glaring.

"What the hell?"

"Good morning." Itachi called, flattened as he was on the ground and quivering. Beside him, slouched against the wall Neji did something that might have been panting on a living person. Sasuke thought it looked a bit like the stutter of deja vu on repeat, his whole person shuddering in a decidedly unnerving way.

"What is wrong with you two?" Sasuke let out a breath as he approached, watching as threads of what looked like glowing matter moved wispily in a breeze that did not exist around their bodies.

"Nothing much." Itachi soothed, pushing himself to his feet and then beside Neji where he leaned on the wall. "Just... escaping being shattered, is all."

Stiff from the sudden waking and growing horror Sasuke swallowed hard, realizing with those words that perhaps he had not taken into consideration the stakes for those already dead in this game.

"Explain. Now."

"You don't want to know." Neji grumbled. "And probably wouldn't understand it even if we tried."

"You came to the wrong place if you're looking to not be shattered." Sasuke snarled, one step forward and the flicker of electricity hissing at his finger tips making Neji raise both brows before rolling his eyes. "Oh, please."

"Boys." Itachi grunted tiredly. "Stop. We were... hunting out some help." His shrug was exhausted and even with morning light filtering through his body his worry pulsed through on his face. "The lead we followed had teeth at the end. We got out in time."

"You need to stop." Sasuke shook his head. "There's no dying for you, but you were afraid." He let his eyes shift from Itachi to Neji sharply, analyzing their placid unreadable faces like braille.

"What happens if you don't get out on time?"

Neji glanced at Itachi then, at the same time the Uchiha let his eyes slide to him. "Ah. Well... " He shrugged again, once too many times to be casual anymore. "Nothing we're not prepared to endure."

It was rare that Sasuke used words he would deem unfit for Sasu and Hina's ears anymore but a colorful hiss escaped his lips then and only after did he flinch, searching for his charges and finding his room empty of anything but ghosts.

"What... where are the children?" Ignoring for the moment the two annoying spectres in his presence he rummaged through the blankets and pillows on his bed, finding nothing.

"He's like a hen." Neji muttered, mildly disgusted. "I can't stand to watch it."

"I rather love it." Itachi admitted, earning himself a glare from his brother that would have stung if he had had a body.

"You must stop this." Sasuke continued, as though their commentary on his paternal tendencies had not just happened. "You have to stop. I have it under control."

"You mean by offering Hinata Hyuuga your heart on a platter for her to stab?" Itachi's voice had lost all affection and mirth. Flatly he crossed his arms and clenched his jaw. "No."

"Your stubborn idea of what is best for everyone is going to result in disaster." Neji began, stopping only because Sasuke agreed. "You have decided before what you thought was best for me."

As quickly as the room grew quiet so then too did Sasuke's pulse accelerate. Dark eyes fixed on his brother's shape he shook his head. "You don't get to do this to me again."

For a long moment everyone held still, thinking of the many things Itachi had done that could have been done better. Things which even Neji winced at being brought up.

"The only reason he agrees with you is because he's worried Hinata is going to take your offer and consider it." Itachi retorted, skipping over the accusation which stung worse than any wave of goldly power on his shaky spiritual frame. "The Hyuuga is nervous."

Neji glared, suddenly done with the conversation and already dissipating.

"There's nothing to worry about." Sasuke grumbled, for both their benefit as he started out the door in search of the kids. "One of the reasons that I...one of the reason that I'm in this mess is because of who she is. And she's not the kind to betray her family." More quietly, whispered as he skipped down the stairs he sighed. "Not even for me."

Behind him the ghosts frowned in different levels of worry and confusion before vanishing in sparkles of light.

* * *

Pain was something that Gaara though he was rather a connoisseur of. There were different levels and kinds of pain, and not everyone had the chance he had of experiencing them separately, intimately and at such a young age.

It was hard to remember that time in his life. When all he had had was the agony of isolation, the pain of endless nights alone only to be met by mornings where the loneliness was all the worse for all the people awake and still distant from him.

After that there had been the shock of touch and physical pain. The surprise of realizing that the scar carved into his forehead was hardly a blip in the grand scheme of torture and damage one could endure to a body.

It was through this lesson, taught in part by Lee and Naruto and even Sasuke Uchiha that he had learned to grow strong in his body as well as his mind. That reaching out and making contact was a requirement for enduring the pains life brought.

Still, he never really got used to getting beaten.

The wince was miniscule but the grunt was not. She was awake as she had not been before, at least not with him. Fluid as a wisp of brine on a sea breeze she snapped from behind him to before him, fingers hot with chakra aiming to destroy.

It was just a flutter of a touch, but it sent needle sharp pins through his whole left side and the grunt came out after, admitting defeat before he could even agree to the choice.

Hinata froze, mid spar and sweaty in a way that had Gaara's heart skipping beats and not from exertion. "Oh no, are you- did I-?"

"I'm fine." He cut in, softening the snap at the last second as he straightened. It was a sore spot that he was easily wincing. Unlike others, like Hinata he had only had a decade of improving his form and taijutsu and it was something he never forgot. There was nothing gentle about the gentle fist, and the fact that delicate looking as the Hyuuga Sisters were beneath the softness of their smile something hard as calloused skin hid.

Something determined and stubborn.

Something able to maim.

Turning away quickly he motioned to his water bottle sitting ignored in the shade before walking in that direction. It had unnerved him how vexed Hanabi had appeared when she had realized Hinata was not going to be present for dinner. Her irritation rubbed off and although he waited, sipping tea on the engawa late into the night the elder Hyuuga did not appear.

Thoughts of going to the hospital had flitted through his brain like stray birds dodging rocks. He couldn't bring himself to be there in the end. If there was one thing about Hinata that he understood it was that for her to reach out was imperative, to grab at her when she was unprepared was a sure fire way to be denied access.

And access to her mind, to her smiles, to her time was what he wanted. All he wanted, in the long run...right?

Soft, and hardly loud enough for him to hear inside his own head a thought occured, sprouting small as a wild blood among weeds.

 _If only she was like Hanabi._

"Gaara-kun?" Hinata's hand on his elbow had him biting the inside of his cheek hard enough to hurt, snapping him back into reality with an unpleasant jolt. "Are you all right?"

Idly he rubbed at his forehead, feeling the thickened scar tissue of the kanji for love that he had given himself in a moment of childish fear.

"Sorry." He said, squinting his eyes not against the sun but his own shame. "I just... I..." He paused, turning to find her eyes fixed resolutely on him, worry lining the space between her brows.

Even streaked with dirt and with a bruise blooming purple on her exposed shoulder she was pretty, drying his mouth like the sands of home and making his stomach writhe uncomfortably.

"I...Hanabi said something... the other day." He began again, doing his best to sound casual and knowing in his bones that he was failing miserably. Hinata's attention did not waver, although something flickered in her eyes like worry.

"About?" She prompted softly when he did not continue. Swirling the contents of his bottle Gaara studied the shadows and light that passed through the branches of the tree affording them some shade. It was going to be a brutally hot day. Already the hum of heat waves was melting the marrow in their bones and it's familiarity was comforting enough for him to draw a breath.

"About choices. About being raised to cling to choices made." He glanced up then cautiously, knowing that this might strike a chord of memory inside his fiance to make her recall the last conversation they had had in reference to her choosing him.

Hinata remained calm, placid as ever. "Hanabi... has some rigid thoughts about life."

"You disagree?" Gaara turned then expectantly, only to be surprised by her withdrawal. Slowly she lowered herself to sitting on the green grass. So much rain during the summer was uncommon and usually the hills that secluded the training yards were coarse with burnt yellow sticks sticking out of dry mud.

Running her hands through the tufts of fresh fragrant green she sighed. "One choice can deny another." She shrugged. "People change." Gently she pressed her chin to her raised knee, studying the scratches of their spar on the dry dirt of the field, learning the outline of the fight they had written among the dust.

"Yes." Gaara agreed. It was only after she changed the subject to dinner and how she was hoping to see Hanabi there after missing her last night that he realized perhaps he had not realized it was not her that was changing.

It was him.

* * *

It had taken a lot to simply watch from the shadows as his brother rushed through the house in a growing panic. Finding things was a speciality all shinobi excelled at, and it seemed that didn't matter to Sasuke. Not when the seconds ticked by and still no giggling Hina and Sasu were to be found.

In the end, flinging open the front door had sucked a sigh of relief so loud from his mouth that both kids had turned to look at him, interested in the way his hand pressed on his gut as if to keep it from trying to climb out of his mouth.

"You are not allowed to leave this house without me." He informed them, and the only thing that was missing to conjure up images of their mother was the hand on the hip that had been a signature of Mikoto's stern scoldings.

Itachi had smiled, despite the weariness of his soul and waited patiently for a better time to appear.

It came later, after some waiting and watching as his stoic and still grumpy brother served the chatter boxes breakfast, scolding here and there when too much of something was poured, or when Sasu's uncontrollable energy had him kicking at his chair leg rhythmically.

Once fed and with their happy faces rushing to the courtyard for some digging Sasuke had been left alone again, and Itachi allowed himself the luxury of appearing at his table.

One day he hoped he could stop taking luxuries from his brother, to whom he already owed so much.

"So..." Itachi offered gently, aware that Sasuke did not turn to look at him at the scent of mint and fresh breeze that came with his appearance. "About earlier."

"I don't wish to discuss it." Sasuke replied. In his hands the cutlery clattered, sudsy and fragrant with lime soap. He focused on that. On the bubbles that made him smile when he thought of her and the fact that he would always at least have that. Memories.

Few and far between.

"Right." Itachi allowed, watching the broad shoulders on the man his baby brother had become turned resolutely away from him.

"I hate that you don't think you're worth choosing. Over everything else."

There was no other way to say it or bring it up. It was a conversation that needed to be had at a sprint in order to survive. Like holding your breath while passing through a tunnel, he was hoping against hope that the tunnel wasn't so long he wouldn't make it.

Sasuke made that clear as he turned slowly around. Nothing about his face had the signs of a short conversation.

"I care too much about her to make her sacrifice everything." Sasuke stated, sharp as a knife on the chopping block. "It's my care for her that dictates my choices. Not how much she cares for me."

Itachi blinked, giving himself time to process this before whispering. "It... was my care for you that guided me, Sasuke. Incorrectly, if you do recall."

Sasuke's jaw was clenched tight enough for a muscle to pulse at his cheek and carefully, as he would avoid an untriggered exploding tag he turned to leave.

"I recall."

There was no point trying to chase him, and so Itachi didn't. He listened instead to the slam of the door closing. The silence the abounded broken by the chirruped calls of young voices, one which made him ache just to hear.

It was this way, in silence and mourning that Hinata found him some time later. When the sun was higher than usual for her arrival. At first out of her periphery he was Sasuke, thinner, and maybe an inch taller but once examined head on the ethereal quality of his being was the thing which truly gave him away as an impostor.

Uncertain of this new developement Hinata dropped her bag at the kitchen door way, listening for the children and finding their voices soothing in their cheer.

"Itachi-san." Fingers twisting behind her back she hesitated at the threshold. "You're here."

Itachi's gaze studied her straight on for the first time. A scrutiny which Hinata had to admit would have been unnerving from a living thing, considering how shaky it made her when she knew he could do no harm.

A tiny voice inside her head whispered that perhaps she was being naive. Perhaps Sasuke's soft smiles and muffled laugh had made her think Uchihas were all the same.

"Here I am." Itachi agreed, sitting up straighter at her entrance. "The wrong Uchiha, I gather from your expression."

It was a skill she was thankful for, being able to remain blank faced in dire situations and Hinata almost whispered a thank you to her father and all the tutors in his employ for torturing her into perfecting it for this moment. "Of course not."

"He will be, if I know him at all, down the road, past the house." Itachi smiled, clearly not buying the lie but willing to go along. "If you turn right, past the copse of trees that has a wild look about it. Willows, largely."

Despite the directions Hinata remained, studying him as he studied her and after a long held breath she nodded. "All right."

There was a hint that something was in his mouth he wanted to say, something which held on to his tongue and refused to be spoken. Uncertain still Hinata stepped back and towards the door, wondering why the urge to defend was making her chakra flicker and dance beneath her skin.

* * *

The Uchiha compound had seemed empty but for the single house on the dirt road that scarred the green of bush, tree and grassland that surrounded it.

There were also the skeletal beginnings of structures. Buildings which the Hyuuga were helping to form and create, like Hanabi would help in the molding of a new Uchiha breed.

Behind the twisted bit of road however, hiding among the wild of the bracken and the piles of lumber and tile another abode stood in the distance. Following Itachi's instructions had not been difficult. It would be, he knew, the only thing standing tall in a hundred foot radius among the desecrated piles of rubble that was the last of the Uchiha Compound of old.

Approaching the house in the morning light made the weeds lining the cracked stones before it shine emerald green. They shuddered in the lazy breeze that drifted through, rattling old and threadbare wind chimes hanging determinedly from the red faded tile of the roof.

Mouth pressed firmly together to contain her confusion Hinata walked until the shadow of the house hugged her away from the burn of the sun. With the front door open there was the brightness of light down a long hall where the back door glared like a bright eye that was the back door of the house standing open.

She could see him silhouetted against the square of light, every poky edge of black hair and the steady rock of his shoulders minutely slumped against a pull heavier than gravity.

That was a thing she recognized as easily as her own face. That was the weight of sadness.

Swallowing the thought that she was perhaps intruding where she was not wanted Hinata stepped onto the porch and felt the wood of the ancient engawa groan beneath her feet, drawing his gaze calmly for it would have taken much to sneak up on someone like him and she had not been trying.

"Careful." He said it quietly, there was no need to shout in such silence. "Much of the floor is on it's last days."

Hinata nodded in agreement, carefully maneuvering her feet around what appeared to be rotten timber through the moth bitten and threadbare coating of decomposing tatami mats. Finally, she stood by his side in the largest room of the main floor, judging from the shape of the house on the outside.

Someone had tried to clean the blood. There were smears of an attempt with a towel on the crumbling sliding doors and the stain of something that had to have once been crimson in splashes over the wood of the walls and ground.

There was no smell of carnage to speak of, at least. Thanks largely to the fact that the wood and it's decomposition was a strong scent in and of itself, but on top of that there was honeysuckle growing in a riot of freedom at the back of the house, drenching everything foul in an icing sugar coating of sweetness.

"I did not think they left your father's house standing." Hinata admitted softly. In her memory talk of the Uchiha massacre was vague, punctured through with holes caused by the death of her mother. She had had her own agonies to bear at the time, and must have simply forgotten his.

One thing she did recall however was the lamentation that so many old houses, well kept and historic would be torn to the very ground.

"I did not let them." Sasuke admitted softly, hands clasped neatly behind his back as he studied the stain of faded blood that had been left upon one see through paper door. There were holes and tears, and half the one side had been shredded completely. He tried to remember if that had been the case the night of everyone's death or if it had happened over time and could not recall.

All he knew for sure was that everything faded.

"Perhaps I should have." He continued, encouraged as always by Hinata's easy silence and willingness to listen. "I held onto it because I had intentions of beginning a new legacy for the Uchiha clan. But I am a poor substitute for an honorable family." He frowned. "Even with Hanabi's help... I would have done too little too late to restore this."

Hinata frowned in turn, allowing herself a glance at his face.

"Perhaps it is best if it all fades away." His voice held little rancor where she still felt she deserved at least a reprimand for destroying both their chances, and it made her turn instinctively away.

"You and Hanabi would have been wonderful roots for a new Uchiha tree."

"It would hardly have been fair." Sasuke countered quickly, so quickly Hinata was forced to look at him again. "Considering what I know of Hanabi now..." He hesitated, dragging his eyes from her face with what appeared to be some difficulty. "She deserved better than me. I have little to offer."

"You have much to offer." Hinata shook her head, turning fully to him then. "Sasuke-"

"Not to her." He let out a breath. "I have little enough to offer the right person let alone her. She deserves better."

With her cheek firmly between her teeth Hinata sighed softly, twisting her arms behind her back to keep from reaching for him. "I... I do not believe in there being a right person. Just right choices."

Sasuke let out a breath that was dangerously close to a scoff. "You, whose heart was broken say there is no right person?" He glanced at her as she moved to examine the rest of the room, turning her head from one side to the other, examining the dangerously cracked rafters above.

"It is because my heart was broken that I believe in choice." Hinata supplied gently. "Because I choose every day not to love him anymore."

"You don't love him?" Sasuke said this with mild incredulity, or so it seemed to her. If she had turned to him perhaps she would have caught the stamped on strangled bit of hope that flickered through his eyes.

"No." She shook her head. "I choose not to everyday. Like I would choose to in a different...if things had... " she cleared her throat, smiling through the hurt with an ease that came partly from practice and partly from healing. "It is not easy either way. At least we get to decide which of the hard things we do."

Sasuke's eyes were no longer interested in the house. There was a slow careful dance of her limbs to distract. She moved through the dangerously creaking beams examining the nicks and bumps wood sustained through years of abandonment and beneath it years of living in it.

One post, dark brown and soft with age had the carved lines of growth only a mother or father bother to measure, with initials and numbers beside.

She traced the line with his S.U written next to it, measuring the height of that past Sasuke to just beneath her ribs as she smiled.

"It does not feel like a choice-" There had been more to that sentence, but he snatched it back before it made it's escape and Hinata turned confusedly to him, wondering if she had imagined that cut off.

"No." She admitted. "I agree. Much of the time... it does not feel like a choice." Her eyes focused on his calculated movement as he turned away, biting his lip as he started out towards the back door.

"You should see what is left of the garden." He called, unaware of her archiving the shape of his shoulders as he exited his family's home. "My mother loved to make things grow."

A smile, unexpected graced her face then as she followed in his shadow. "Is the honeysuckle her doing?"

"I wouldn't know. It gets bigger every time I come here." Sasuke admitted. "I should have gathered some flowers for Hanabi from here instead. It would have been less of a chore."

Stepping out onto the broken back steps Hinata paused, stunned to silence by the chaos of what had once been a neat garden bed now rampaging in wild abandon.

The willows shaded the blooms that needed the coolness of a good hiding spot, and along the paving stones other more boisterous flowers had taken to dancing in the breeze. There was honeysuckle and foxglove in dripping tendrils, long neck dandelion heads poofy and wistful. More of the blackberry bushes tangled at the roots of the willow trees and the smell, heating up in the morning sunshine was a perfume hard to decipher but even harder to dislike.

"They were right here all along." Hinata murmured. In silence the two studied the unruly brilliance of so much color before both laughing in their own quiet way. "I can't believe you went all the way to the pond."

"I am a fool, sometimes."

"It would have taken so much less time."

"Yes, I'm aware."

Grinning now, and glad to see less of a downturn on his mouth Hinata tugged on his sleeve, startling him with a shock too huge for the miniscule contact. "Come, we have two little ones to tutor today, and we should try to be back early. I think Hanabi may need us at dinner tonight. I completely missed yesterday."

If she had not been pulling on him, insinuating that their hands may have the option of belonging together Sasuke might have been resistant to doing anything as unpleasant as spending an evening at a formal dinner party.

But with her smiling there was little he could say no to, not much that he would deny. So he agreed, and tried not to feel the crack in his heart humming.

* * *

 _ **yo**_

 _ **hey**_

 _ **i'm hopefully back! ...please don't throw things at me...I know i'm late.  
also the quality is crap, but you know what?  
I don't know. I have no idea why I can't write, it just isn't working like I want it to. i'm hoping this will help :(**_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **Inky**_


	19. Chapter 19

It was the sunniest day they had had since the downpour at the end of the Crane Folding party. The air was thick as water and it spilled in rivulets down the backs, necks and foreheads of all the servants rushing to finalize preparations for the arrival of the family.

There was little to be done, if Hanabi's prepping had been on point and there was little she did that wasn't. Still she watched as the maids fretted with the edges of gilded frames on walls, the already shining glimmer of the wood floors, the already topped up oil in the lamps.

Arms crossed and tucked into the thick sleeves of her kimono she stood on the engawa just out of reach of the sun's brutal rays and breathed in the air so humid it thickened in the throat like honey.

If only the thoughts inside her mind were so sweet.

"Tomorrow they should begin arriving." Hiashi's voice was not a surprise. Despite her lack of training there was rarely a time when her senses were not hot wires, ever watchful of those around her and even his silent experienced step could be distinguished among the chaos of all the others at her back.

"Yes." She agreed, reaching up to rub a trickle of sweat from the side of her face with a neatly folded kerchief. It would not do to have a lady of the Hyuuga house perspiring all over the place. Or at least, that's what all of the ancient tutors that had hounded her most of her life would have said. It didn't matter to them that when they were not present and the private instructors for ninjitsu had her in their grip they cared not if she was slick as a nervous pig.

All they wanted was her bared teeth, her brutal claws and all that was her will to live to come screeching out of her small body. Sweat and ladyship duties be damned.

What a contradiction she was. What a fraud.

"You seem morose of late." Hiashi cut into her thoughts when usually he would have been pleased to see Hanabi's mouth not running off without thought. This quietness was unusual enough to comment on and idly he watched his daughter out of the corner of his eye, calculating every flick of her lashes and fidget of her long toughened fingers.

"I have not been feeling all that well." Hanabi admitted simply, letting him decide what kind of ailment it was that made her fret. "With the wedding approaching so quickly I thought it best to slow down somewhat. I am sorry that I did not stay for the full duration of dinner last night."

Hiashi would have shrugged, if he had been anyone else. Instead he gazed out like her at the stretch of grass beneath the engawa's shadow, dotted in even paving stones that made up the path towards the sakura tree that was the garden's crowning glory and the pond that it stood beside.

It was a beautiful day. The kind that made one squint in the brightness and neon brilliance of the colors. Still, somehow he felt as he watched his daughter's mouth downturned that for her something inside was raining.

"You seemed very disappointed to hear Hinata would not be joining us." He offered, wondering if this would give him more information or shut his daughter down like a vault being broken into by an amateur.

For a moment there was no knowing which of the two things would happen, and Hanabi did not move from her silent perch at the very edge of the engawa, eyes unblinking.

"I miss her." The reply was whispered, her voice thickened not with the dense summer air but with emotion that Hiashi was surprised by. "Don't you worry about her, Father? Does something not seem...wrong?"

The only sign of distress was the flick of Hiashi's eyes over the scene, surveying not his garden and the many workers that were toiling to make it immaculate for the upcoming nuptials but his eldest daughter in his mind, pale and tired, smiling with her usual forced complacency.

Her elegant but slightly mournful poise.

Had he missed something? Frowning he turned to Hanabi and met her familiar gaze, so much like his own, so much like his wife's from so long ago. There was tenderness inside his second born that he had not known was there until much too late to cultivate it. Thankfully, like the wild roses of the fields and the succulent berries on the thorny vines Hanabi had made up her mind to grow strong and beautiful and deadly all at once.

In someone else's hands she would have grown more tender, perhaps. Less brutal, more kind. But he had been a young and self centered man when he married and a young immature husband when he fathered and a young unprepared father when his wife died.

It had been a mistake to let his own grandfather dictate the raising of his children, but the grief had eaten away much of his common sense and the fear of not being good enough the last of his rationality.

That same fear flourished now, like a long sleeping seed sprouting overnight. Had he failed them? Had he missed a crucial flaw he was making?

"She is tired and working very hard." Hiashi began slowly, unsure if this was truth or a truth he wished to convince himself of. "I believe... unlike you, my sparking fire, she mourns more silently. Differently."

"Gracefully." Hanabi muttered, turning away at the last moment. "I know."

Hiashi's frown only deepened, his hand reaching out to press at the small of her back knowing a hug would be tolerated with stiff shoulders and a wrinkled nose if he offered it.

"There are two kinds of grace in my household: the one of the sun." He pointed up at the glaring orb that floated above. "Reflected serene and quiet on the moon... and the one of the spark." His hand came back to her face then, cupping her smooth chin. "Like the fireworks that will light the night sky the day before you leave me and become a wife. Neither is more or less, just different."

It was rare to see Hanabi's eyes flooding with anything other than fury, and yet there she stood with her byakugan powerful sight blurred by tears, long elegant lashes clumping as she blinked them back defiantly.

"She's all right then?" Skipping over the fact her chin trembled like a toddler she stared her father in the eye, clinging to the hope that she was wrong. "We're not missing something?"

Hiashi looked at his daughter and hoped he did not lie. "What could we possibly miss, Hanabi? She is Hinata. What has she to hide?"

* * *

"Let's go."

Sticky hands sliding into hers, Hinata smiled. Beside her Sasu skipped every third step, hopping over stones on the path and on her right Hina dawdled, pulling back on her arm as she became engrossed on the ladybugs flittering through the tall grasses on the side of the road or the bundles of dandelion heads just aching to be disturbed.

He watched her as she danced through their tug-o-war over her limbs with grace and amusement and calm, unaffected. Where he would have been ordering they behave she made it a joy and somehow they made it all the way to the pond without incident.

The buzz of the bees in the trees, the heat like a blanket over their shoulders from the pools of sunlight was the perfect compliment to Sasu and Hina's laughter, bubbling up as they ran through the hazel towards the pond's edge.

More quiet than usual Sasuke watched instead as she instructed them on how to collect honey from a live hive, how the dandelion roots were edible and could be made into salad or tea, how some plants when found could be dug up for their roots and roasted over a fire in a substitute for potatoes.

Sasu listened intently to all this, rummaging through the base of trees for branches to set ablaze while Hina grunted and huffed as she wrangled the yam-like roots from the earth.

There was too much to learn, in too little a time. Sasuke knew this, and he was sure Hinata knew this too. The point was less to make them able to self sustain but to have the confidence to try.

After the fire was set to burning, small and serene in the hole Sasu had meticulously dug for it and lined with stones Hina placed the roots wrapped tightly in leaves among the embers before setting off after Hinata who was stretching in the shade of the hazel trees, preparing for another round of gentle fist.

Together the boys shared in their distraction, trying to mimic the intense concentration of their female counterparts in their own training while simultaneously unable to look away. Hina and Hinata's hair shone a brilliant ink black in the shock of sunlight from above, and even stuttering through stances Hina had the same fluid and careful motion of her limbs as her elder once a movement was mastered. Their laughter when it punctured their practice tugged at the edges of Sasu and Sasuke's mouths.

At noon when the sun was at it's highest the children finally rebelled into a full out run to splash about in the water, pulling out the succulent roots of the watery plants that grew where the pond became hip deep with their toes.

With Hinata sitting across from him on the other side of the smoking fire Sasuke winced, pressing a hand unconsciously to the aching crack in the depths of his chest. Her soft humming tune lilted with the crackle and pop of the fire as she shifted the roots within their leafy insulation, checking for doneness with a chopstick before shoving them back into the embers.

"Ouch." Shoving a finger into her mouth she winced, and then smiled sheepishly at him in turn. "Not paying attention."

"Let's see." It was not a question, said with the firm unshakable tone he offered and so she sighed a little in resignation before offering her hand for inspection.

"It's not bad."

"You should put it in the water."

"What for?" She shook her head before blowing gently on the ashy pile of cinders still glowing faintly in their fire pit. "It's only a little burn."

"Hinata." His scolding came out naturally, just like letting go of her hand was unnatural. He had had plenty of time to examine her minor injury and still he grasped her fingers in his, feeling the soft callouses at the places where her skin had known the constant rigor of combat and training, the learning to be strong.

"Do you think it's odd that we're not panicking?" Hinata replied, changing the subject despite his continued inspection of her burn. "Considering the circumstances."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, unamused by her attempt to derail his thoughts on the burn. "It is not like either of us to be afraid."

Being lumped together with him in something like bravery had Hinata's gaze lifting to him, shrouded in the veil of smoke that drifted between them. Never would she have considered herself someone as brave as himself. Fear dominated much of her life, but then as he looked back at her calmly she realized he knew that. He too feared. That didn't stop him from doing what he must.

"Maybe we are not very smart." She offered, attempting to lighten the thoughts in her head. Sasuke smirked, allowing the trick to work. "True, if we burn and refuse to cool it down." He prodded her hand again.

"It's nothing." Hinata insisted, raising her eyes from the smoke and fire before her to his. "It's just a-"

Whatever she had been going to say died in her throat and it took him aback, seeing the flickering doubt and fear flash over her face as she examined him. It took him half a second to realize something he had not meant to show was on his face, something soft and delicate and likely deadly in her mind.

Hand tight on hers now he let out a breath, unsure of how to continue living in this extended moment of terror only to have her eyes drift from his to over his shoulder.

"Oh no-Sasu! Sasu don't throw the-" She flinched hard then, ripping her hand from his and standing so fast Sasuke had nearly drawn a kunai before turning and examining the thing which had so distracted her.

Back near the tree where Sasu and Hina had learned about smoking out a hive Sasu now stood with mouth open wide and eyes wider.

Behind him, and looking increasingly smaller as her shoulders shrunk Hina also stared, watching with horror as the hive vomited from it's dark mouth a stream of insects making such a racket as to drown out her sharply inhaled breath as well as the little shriek that escaped her.

The rock which Sasu had been chucking up and catching to amuse Hina had made it up but not come down. Instead it had lodged itself deep into the hive whose owners were now swirling in an pinprick cloud of stingers above buzzing louder with growing focus as they found their target.

Sasuke let out a shaky breath he had not realized he was holding, feeling as his shoulders drooped minutely. "Shit."

Beside him Hinata drew in a long breath and screamed in a way he had never heard her scream, startling him enough to have him whipping his head around in surprise.

"Run!"

Like deer startled from their frightened shock the children snapped, arrows loosed into the water's direction and the bees followed in a swarm, already drawing out screams as they nabbed at the children's exposed knees and elbows, necks and arms.

Together Sasuke and Hinata rushed with their younger counterparts, urging them faster into the water before diving beneath the cover of liquid.

Although they had all played along the water's edge, dipping overworked feet into it's coolness they had never gone swimming despite the heat.

Under the water and with eyes wide open Sasuke watched as Hina clung desperately to Hinata's thigh, cheeks blown out and eyes wide, dark hair swirling in dark tendrils along her face.

Hinata herself was all crescent shaped under water smiles, her arms full of Sasu and hair a sheet of dancing silk above her head. In the half dark of the liquid she still managed to find joy, laughter coming out of her mouth in bubbles.

Another pang of pain needled at Sasuke's chest and unable to look anymore he pushed up, breaking the water's surface only a moment before the children and Hinata herself.

Outsmarted, the bees buzzed angrily near the shore looking for quarry that had disappeared into the liquid world they could not give chase in.

Slowly, panting from the run and the long dive the four looked on as the cloud of stingers twisted and turned angrily before beginning to return the way they came.

Hina, who still clung with a white knuckled death grip to Hinata's side let out a sound that was a laugh if one looked at it with eyes squinted and head turned sideways. Startled, Sasu looked back at her a moment before letting out a laugh of his own and before they knew it all four were laughing, only a mite hysterically while splashing at each other with abandon.

In the brightness of the day the water turned to diamonds, shot through with the sun's light and sparkling where it sprayed.

Hinata had by far the most advantage. With her hands and a shot of chakra the liquid danced to her will, lifting in twisting whips before scattering into sheets that soaked them thoroughly when they landed.

Shrieks from the children were the only warning Sasuke got before he was being used as a shield against the onslaught and desperately he tried to ward off the attack.

There was no winning against her, however. Not when she laughed with no restraint and set the world to sparkling. Not when her hands twisted in the air and drew spheres of water to glisten and glitter above their heads, drawing the children out from behind him to poke and prod the bubbles, their laughter bright as the sun with their delight.

 _This is what I want._

The ache in his chest did not abate but intensified as he watched her tossing the darkness of her wet hair back from her face with fluttering fingers, smiling wide as Sasu made a wild attempt to reach a drifting bubble above his head.

 _This is what I've always wanted._

Between them the children danced and frolicked, the water sending rivulets in every direction as her hands lifted bubbles in increasing numbers above their heads, the chakra infused liquid shining even as it popped. Catching the quiet seriousness of his eyes Hinata paused, her smile wavering only a moment before turning decidedly sad.

 _This is what I would wish for, if I could._

 _If I dared._

 _Just days like this._

 _Light, food, warmth._

 _And you._

And inside he kept on slowly breaking.

* * *

"I want onigiri." Sasu half sang, swinging Hinata's hand almost like he was aiming to take it right out of the socket. Her laugh was tired as Sasuke's scolding, half hearted and more for show.

"You are going to a remove a limb from her. Be gentle."

"I'm gentle." Sasu snarled over his shoulder, dark eyes brimming with dislike. "All the time."

"I can't believe how insufferable this creature is." Sasuke replied after a moment of glaring. "I am glad that Dobe didn't get to witness this."

Hinata's laugh bubbled up like carmalizing sugar in a pot, sweet and enticing. "Naruto would have enjoyed it."

"That is why I am glad."

"Onigiri." Sasu repeated, looking at Hina draped in a heap across Sasuke's arms for agreement. "Right, Hina-chan? Onigiri for supper?"

"Cake?" Hina inquired sleepily. Her attempts to walk back to the house had been in vain. Wobbly legs from excess chakra use had left her far behind and only when she burst into tears did the other three realize the gap between them and their quiet companion.

Hinata had watched after moving to go to her as Sasuke retraced his steps calmly, crouching down to her level and taking her hand.

Their conversation was too quiet to eavesdrop on, but Sasu and Hinata tried anyway, eating them up with their eyes.

A moment or two later Hina was in Sasuke's arms, carried like a precious and easily bruised harvest of fruit, damsel-like in her relaxed limbs. He highly suspected she would be fast asleep before they arrived home, if her stomach didn't growl her awake over and over again.

"Cake?" Sasu finally retorted, as if waiting for her to deliver a punchline that would make her suggestion a joke. "But... that's not food."

"I hate agreeing with him, but-" Sasuke began, stopped by a scoff from the Hinata ahead of him.

"Cake is food!"

"No, it's not." He began slowly, interested in the slightly defensive tone of her voice. "It's sugar, and flour and-"

"Those are calories." Hinata countered, turning her head just enough to glance at him in a way that suggested he was being disregarded as uninformed on the subject. "Used for energy. That is nutrition. That is food."

"You cannot live on cake." Sasuke deadpanned. "You would die."

"You would die on onigiri too." Hinata parried back. "It's not about that."

"You would not die on onigiri." He was smiling though, unable to suppress the amusement that came from watching her get worked up over something as mundane as cake. "At least not as quickly as you would on cake."

"How about food?" Sasu cut in while Hinata drew a breath to continue the argument. "How about food, for supper?"

"All right." Hinata laughed then, running a hand through Sasu's dark hair. "Food it is."

It was hotter than usual on their walk back. The sun was still some time from setting, hovering in that place where the sky was only minutely orange and the shadows were just starting to think about growing taller.

From the ground heat waves rolled in dancing squiggles and Hinata dared a glance at the sun, uncomfortable with it shining so brightly on her head. Since knowing the Lady Ama played with her life the sun loomed more and more like a giant ever watching eye and it was not always welcome.

"A bath, I think is in order." She murmured, sighing in relief at the sight of the house brightly lit on the path. "Then supper and early bed."

"Early bed?" Sasu grumbled, stopping his whine abruptly at the clearing of Sasuke's throat. When his eyes landed on Hina passed out completely in Sasuke's arms he sighed, face softening in a way that stabbed in his elder's chest.

"All right. I will go bathe then."

"She pushed too hard." Hinata commented as they passed into the coolness of the house. With the curtains shut the heat had been mostly kept at bay making Hina's little body droop even more fondly as the heat was washed away in the shade. "I was warning her to stop."

Sasuke puzzled at Hinata's lamenting tone, following her and Sasu up the stairs where he diverted to the bathroom. Entering his bedroom did not seem strange. Nor did pulling back the sheets and covers on the bed she had already slept on once to tuck in the bundle in Sasuke's arms.

"You seem surprised that she would disregard her limits." He muttered, pushing Hina's sweaty fringe back from her pink cheeked face.

At the door Hinata shrugged. "I warned her it would be too much. Seems silly not to listen."

The sound of the bath running was assuring enough for them both to head back down the stairs and to the kitchen. With the fridge open Sasuke hummed as he thought, pulling out ingridients. At his back Hinata tied her apron in place, pulling her hair back into a ponytail.

"What? What are you humming about?"

Sasuke shrugged, an unnatural movement on his shoulders that made her pause with brows raised, taking the tofu and soy sauce he handed over with wide questioning eyes. "What?"

Distracting himself with the food helped, and so he focused on that. On taking onions from the basket she had placed of them on the counter and beginning to peel back their tough outer layers methodically.

They rarely alluded to what they were dealing with. Not head on. It was dangerous ground. It would even if only for a moment make some things perfectly clear where most of the time they were fuzzy and unfocused in the background.

Things like why Sasu pressed his hands to Hina's cheeks so often, rubbing his nose on her own. Why Hina listened with rapt attention to any single one of his words. Why when they held hands Sasuke turned resolutely away, pretending not to notice it.

A glance at the calendar hung on his fridge made him frown, noting the increasingly small number of days to the end of the month and his looming wedding day.

 _To hell with it._

"Well." He offered slowly, measuring out his words like he measured out the sesame oil. "She is you."

Still standing frozen behind him Hinata allowed herself to blink a handful of times, hands full of tofu and soy sauce and panic.

"I...I- yes. I.. I know that."

"Well then?" He pressed, rummaging around in a drawer for a knife for a moment. "Why are you so surprised that she would push so hard today?"

Behind him and out of his line of sight Hinata breathed in, slow and steady as she would if she were aiming a long range sniper shot at a kill. They had never truly discussed what it meant to be them. Sasu's behavior was so different from Sasuke's that it was even easy to forget, and she had on more than one occasion forgotten.

It was only once or twice that the fact Hina was herself rang brightly in her head, blinding all else and making Hinata's own heart stutter. Like, if she was honest, when Sasuke had held the girl so tenderly in his arms as she sobbed in the dark, lamenting her loneliness.

"I...no." Hinata managed, the pause growing too long by some before she finally released the coiling tension. "No, you... you are right. I should not be surprised. But...but I am."

Another hum from the Uchiha assured her he was listening and slowly she ripped her cemented feet from the tiles, moving to stand beside him at the counter. Mechanically, and thankful for something to do she offered the wok for the sesame oil he had measured, letting him pour it in one long golden ribbon.

"You don't realize your own tenacity."

It was so carelessly said, so casual that Hinata did not dare respond for a time, focused instead on chopping the carrots he had gathered at the counter with the onions into perfect thin coins.

"I have not often been described as someone with tenacity, Sasuke."

His chuckle was muted as all his mirth ever was, waking something hot and primal in her belly that made her heart nearly stop.

"I have not often been described as honest, Hinata." His eyes glanced sideways at her as he continued to cut. "And yet...?"

She had said so herself, had ground out her frustration at Naruto's lack of trust in him in the very kitchen they now stood in.

Comfortable in the ensuing silence they chopped until the oil began to smoke in fragrant elegant plumes and Hinata slid the whole mess of chopped vegetables into it, swirling the contents of the wok as they sizzled and danced.

Upstairs Sasu's voice called out, mildly vexed but mostly good natured. "No onigiri?"

"Not today, brat." Sasuke snapped back. "Get in your pajamas and come down here."

"Don't be so bossy." Sasu's huffy reply was half grumbled, his stomps into Sasuke's room growing softer as they faded.

"You will come to dinner with me then, yes?" Hinata asked, lifting the lid of the rice she had put to cook for a moment before glancing at him. "Please?"

It occured to him that earlier on her request had been for Hanabi, her sentence structured around the need to please the young Hyuuga she so loved.

Looking at her now, with her pearl eyes on him it looked different, more pointed. More real.

More personal.

"I suppose." He allowed, setting a place for Sasu at the table and giving himself a reason not to look at her long. "If I must."

"Good." Hinata nodded, as if this was exactly what she had anticipated. "I will see you there then. I am sure Hanabi will have opinions about me if I arrive still damp from the pond and muddy."

It was true that her hair was a mess, and there was a smear of something clay-like on her ear and down her neck but even still Sasuke thought he would rather see her this way than in a komono any day. Any time.

"Right." He said instead, remembering at the last second that he could absolutely not offer any commentary on how he appreciated the wildness of her hair or the flushed health of her cheeks after a long day working. "Sure."

Smiling curiously Hinata shook her head. "Are you all right? You... you sound a little odd."

Practice made it easier than it should have, making up something to hide what he thought and he shook his head. "Dinners are not my favorite things, that's all."

"Ah..." draping her apron on the back of Sasu's chair Hinata nodded. "Well... thank you for not abandoning me to them."

When she finally left he took a moment to recoup, soaking in the boiling heat of a long shower while Sasu ate dinner and prepared for bed. Eyes closed and jaw clenched he tried and tried again to think of something else, of stars or gods or long ago wars.

Nothing worked, for in the end it all led back to her.

* * *

Arriving so early at the Hyuuga House when she was often the last to enter the threshold gave Hinata a chance to see the many busy bodies still at work so late in the evening. The sun had only just begun to set when she left her room, washed and dressed like a lady of a noble house and not the shrieking young thing that had splashed in a pond all morning.

While she wandered slowly from her own chambers to the dining room she had watched the last of the gardeners turn in for the day. They gathered tools and cracked their tired shoulders and backs, calling to each other without the knowledge of being scrutinized by one of their ladies.

Smiling as she was Gaara found her, also coming from his own room with a look of deep contemplation upon his face.

"You're here." He blurt, stunned into speaking without thinking. With her mood so light Hinata let out a small laugh, bowing her neck minutely in hello.

"Yes. I live here."

"Of course," Gaara began, flushing crimson. "Sorry, no... I... you're usually later than this."

"I know." Slowly she began to walk, feeling rather than seeing his hands fluttering as though unsure whether to reach for her or not. Before he could decide she began down the staircase, talking in the hopes of encouraging his companionship without the need for touch. "I thought it would be good for me to come home sooner. You did mention Hanabi was not happy last night earlier."

"She misses you, I think." Gaara tried, succeeding at least in speaking normally even if his face had yet to cool from the blush that ailed him. "I'm glad you're here. I... I have something to show you, actually. Something arrived today."

Hinata paused on the staircase in surprise, a mild mistake that gave him the chance to grip her hand in his gently, tugging her down along with him.

"I will show you. Come, the dining room must be empty."

* * *

"Once when I was young I frightened my sister in the middle of the night."

Gaara's voice had the feather soft quality of touching upon a scar still tingling with the remnant hurt of injury despite its age. Like a scab picked over and over he made a point to tread carefully as he spoke and Hinata understood. There were many things she treated with the same reverent respect within her own head.

"I had trouble sleeping then." He admitted this with an allusion to the things which up until this point had never been mentioned between them. Circles beneath his eyes that had lightened but never fully faded now seemed stark against his pale face even by the light of the glowing dusk above and the stars slowly starting to sprout in the bits of navy soil of the sky.

"She must have needed water, or perhaps just a place cooler than her room to sleep in and she stumbled upon me in our home. I don't know what I was doing." His green eyes shifted through the garden of the Hyuuga compound, interested in the sparkle of the heavens reflected on the barely disturbed water of the pond hugging the roots of the sakura tree. "I knew she was frightened. I could...almost smell it, I...don't know if that makes sense..."

"No." Hinata offered at his furtive glance. "I understand."

"I had no intention to do anything, had not been thinking about her at the time, there were plenty of other things to occupy my thoughts but her fear was so sharp then it was hard not to feel it..." He winced, turning away once more as though the wince had surprised him and he had not intended to share the expression at all. Uncertainly he pressed a hand to his chest.

"I could have asked her for anything, in that moment and she would have complied, to the best of her abilities. She and my brother behaved like shadows. I did not want them but there they were always at my heel and at my back regardless." He let out a breath as he unfurled the letter which crinkled in his grip.

"So it's... it means a lot for Temari to write to me. It could have been a letter filled with reports and, certainly there is that." His smile was quiet and yet potent in it's joy. Beside him Hinata let out a shaky breath of her own at the urge to take his hand, to squeeze it tight, to encourage that happiness some without further lying.

Instead she gripped the solidity of the engawa's edge and waited.

"She writes of her congratulations however." He waved the letter, extending it to Hinata carefully so that it wavered shades of gold and blue as the dying sun and rising moon above them took turns splashing across it. "Not just to me, but also to you."

For a moment Hinata's hands refused to move. To take the letter felt on the verge of yet another lie. Complying, like she had been to the illusion that she was commited to the furthering of intimacy between them. The sharing of touches, of kisses, of looks, of letters.

But to refuse to take a letter that was by his estimation equally hers would have been to come clean on many things and so before her nerves could get the best of her she reached out, taking the paper in her hands with a tremble she steadied by sheer force of will.

Temari's script was a clean and decisive cursive, the spilled ink across the page moving at rapid speed that told her of her efficiency as well as her business. Gaara's name was written with the fluidity of familiarity at the top as she began by addressing the issues she had been handling in his stead.

There were commentaries on the battles fought along the borders of their region. A spat that had wounded a handful of an elite force for the control of a well further into a mountain range that Hinata had never heard of, and several smaller ambushes that were chased down after caravans of imported materials were taken by the raiding parties of the defector army hiding in the wild places of the dessert.

These reports were familiar and concise, soothing in the military efficiency with which they were communicated although they nagged at Hinata with guilt. It was her doing that had drawn their powerful Kazekage from his lands. It was her fault that he lingered long and waited with a patience deserving to be remarked upon for her final acceptance of what had been to everyone an inevitable engagement.

It occured to her as she flipped the page to read the rest of the letter that were things different Gaara would likely be returning to Suna as soon as Hanabi's wedding happened, leaving Hinata behind if she was unprepared to go as well. For how could he linger until their own wedding? How could he extend the visit which strained his homeland so?

Jaw clenching at the thought Hinata continued, freezing at the sight of her name written, more slowly and with more care at the top of the page, right next to Gaara's own.

Words fluttered from the page at her in a sing song voice shot through with steel that was the fuzzy memory of Temari she could draw forth from the short moments she had been in her presence in the past.

Words which included things like sister, family, thank you.

Shakily Hinata closed the page, unable to get to the bottom where expressions of impatience to meet her again were penned in the same rapid hand.

She did not have to look up to feel Gaara's green eyes on her, watching for the reaction which she surely needed to provide and so slowly for it took time she lifted her smile to meet his own. "Temari...is so very kind."

"As her youngest brother I have to caution you that there is a lot of spice in her kindness." Gaara admitted softly, seemingly satisfied with her quiet expression of pleasure. "But she loves as fiercely as she fights."

"I'm sure." Inside her gut Hinata felt the first misgivings of being under the observation of one such clever woman, indeed fierce and astute and just as protective of her brothers. What, she barely dared to wonder, would Temari and Kankuro make of all her blatant lies.

"She mentions arriving soon." Hinata shook herself, trying to not sound wary as she spoke but failing. "I knew they were coming but I am surprised still considering the report on the first page."

Gaara hummed in agreement, taking the letter to examine it's contents idly again. "Yes. She also tells me that your Hokage has called back the team Konoha had so graciously lent for our cause. I was not expecting that, I do wonder why Naruto did not mention it to me. I saw him only yesterday."

Hinata's ears pricked at this, her spine straightening as she stared. "Shino and Kiba are coming back?"

"Shikamaru too." Gaara nodded, his frown alluding to worries swimming in his head. "The Suna shinobi are of course well trained and still in fighting form but we are vastly outnumbered and most are from our capital. They do not know the terrain which our enemy uses to hide in. Kiba and Shino with their abilities for tracking have been a great help in avoiding unnecessary loss of life. I wonder if the ambushes that occurred were before or after their departure..." He slowed and paused, noting with some mild embarrassment that Hinata was straining to keep emotions beneath the paleness of her skin and failing.

Pink at the cheeks she grasped at his hands, blinking hard as though just waking. "Wh..when are they supposed to- I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I realize it is a huge inconvenience that they leave their post in Suna, I just- I haven't..."

"How long has it been since you've seen them?" Gaara asked, finding himself smiling at her earnest little face so on the brink of true joy. "Six months?"

"A...almost a year." Hinata corrected, snatching her hands back at the realization of what she was doing.

"They wanted me to go with." She thought out loud, and stopped realizing too late who she was speaking and about what.

Gaara's green gaze was keen as ever, gentle despite it's laser beam focus on her as she felt herself starting to boil at the neck and ears.

"You chose to stay." He offered, voice lacking in either irritation or hurt but also all other inflection.

It was not possible to meet his eyes. Just to feel them on her face was difficult enough and so instead she traced Temari's neat script in her hands, running her gaze over the curves of her name at the top of the last page.

"Gaara..." Her whisper kept him still, unmoving where before he might have reached for her hand at the shake of her voice. Unsure of what to say she closed her eyes, tired of lies and hurt she could not figure out how to avoid inflicting.

"...I may be a broken thing."

This was not what he had anticipated, it was clear from the breath he took and the touch of his hand on her cheek. "I think perhaps we all are, Hinata."

Before she could elaborate or deflect the sound of steps had her straightening on the engawa, turning away to greet whoever was entering the dining room.

A moment later the door slid open to reveal Sasuke and Hiashi at his side looking both floored and glad to see his soon to be son in law in his house. "I am sure Hanabi will be very glad to hear you have decided to join us today. She has been... " He paused, startled again by the sight of Hinata sitting on the engawa with the Kazekage.

"You are here." he blurt, making her tense little face break out in a sad smile. "Yes..." Glancing sheepishly at Gaara she added softly. "I live here."

"That _is_ news." Hanabi's voice cut through the breath of quiet, her arrival heralded by the jingling of her earrings made of dripping bits of pearl. "I hardly remember having a sister."

Her entrance was followed by the raised brows of the overly surprised as she examined Sasuke, almost like a stranger.

"Or a fiance."

"Dinner?" Hiashi called to the servants, a touch of desperation making it's way into his voice. "I am famished."

Sasuke surveyed his fiance in turn, determined not to let his eyes slide to where Hinata was settling to sit next to the Kazekage at the dinner table.

"Is there not a phrase about absence and hearts?" He murmured, unable despite his best attempt to make himself sound casual. Still, Hanabi smirked a little more sharply than was merited. "I think that might be for when people actually are fond already." She corrected with a touch of heat.

It was not what she had expected, but his smirk was still not exactly surprising.

The servants entering with their meal made Hiashi sigh deeply. "And sake, please." he added as they delivered their dishes. "Do not bother heating it."

* * *

 ** _Well,_**

 ** _This felt better, although it is still not quite where I want it._**

 ** _Thank you for all the encouragement and for sticking with me through this very long winded thing._**

 ** _Much, much love,_**

 ** _Inky_**

 ** _P.S_**

 ** _I respect that this will not necessarily be everyone's cup of tea. There is media I too do not like much or am disappointed by. I am happy to receive critique in a kind and respectful manner, it is easily the most helpful and lovely thing a reader can offer. Please be kind, dears. I am too tired most of the time to bother engaging in conversations that have angry vibes. My energy can and will be allotted to other things. Like finishing this thing and Vital!_**

 ** _MUAH!_**


	20. Chapter 20

It did not take long for Hinata to remember why it was that Sasuke loathed dinners so much. It seemed silly, in fact to think that she had been looking forward to it.

Sitting across from him at the table with Gaara's hand gripping hers and Hanabi spitting like a volcano on the brink of eruption only Hiashi's face was a safe place to rest her eyes and even there she could see the weariness that came with hosting the family.

 _And to think..._ Hinata mused sadly as her Father tipped another sake cupful into his mouth. _Many more are soon to arrive._

"I saw a messenger leaving the compound earlier." Hanabi chattered, her icy greeting with Sasuke was gaining no warmth. Beside her Sasuke dared to look mildly amused, watching as she handled her chopsticks with an ease that hinted at her profiency with a kunai.

"Oh." Gaara breathed, glad to grab onto a subject which did not have any reason to upset her. "I received a letter from my sister only a few hours ago."

"Urgent?" Hanabi's voice softened, her current sting toned down to a reasonable level as her own irritations were put aside in the face of his possible bad news. Gaara and Hinata both blinked at her, varying degrees of surprise on their faces.

"No... Or, well yes but not all bad." The Kazekage attempted to explain. Beside him Hinata focused on keeping her face from showing some of her disbelief as Sasuke rolled his eyes at him, glancing at Hinata with a "Seriously?" expression all over his face.

"It had a lot of good news, in fact." Hinata put in suddenly, giving Sasuke a pointed "Don't be a brat," Look of her own before continuing. "Temari-san and Kankuro-san will be coming soon, if they are able. Although, with Shino and Kiba leaving Suna..."

"Shino and Kiba are returning?" This had Hiashi's attention, despite the growing patches of pink appearing on his usually monotone features. His eyes lingered on Hinata as if searching for something, much more obvious in his thoughts than usual. "They are leaving their post?"

Hanabi's chopsticks lowering to her plate and her quietness was enough to draw both Gaara and Sasuke's attention, but either there was no need for the dramatics or Hinata was determined not to let anything show. Calmly she took a bite of rice and nodded. "The Hokage has called them back. Is that not right, Gaara-kun?"

"Oh." Hanabi offered. "You must be excited to see them then."

"Quite." Hinata nodded, allowing herself a smile that was no lie and therefore could be fully indulged in. From across the table Sasuke turned sharply to his plate, scolding himself and the rising heat at his neck at the sight of her joy.

"That will be two more for the guest list then." Hanabi sighed, earrings jingling as she shook her head gently. "I have so much to do. I still have not even decided on dessert for the day of the ceremony." Her frown was decidedly cross, enough that Gaara thought he was rather sorry for the tomato she ripped apart with her chopsticks.

"A dessert?" The Kazekage asked, hoping to distract her from the mutilation she was committing on her plate.

"Cake is traditional." Hanabi nodded. "But I am not sure that I want that. Is it not too dull?"

"Cake would be lovely." Hinata shook her head. "Everyone loves cake."

To everyone's surprise Sasuke's voice cut off any agreement Gaara was going to offer. "There _are_ other options."

Quick and on beat Hinata cocked her head slightly, eyes narrowed. "Are there? Good ones?"

"Hinata." Hiashi blinked at her challenging tone, as stunned as Gaara and Hanabi sitting open mouthed at the table. "Whatever is the matter with you?"

It took less time for the blood to rush to her head in a wave than for her lungs to fill with air and horrified at the liberty she had just taken she stared at her lap, eyes wide. "Oh... I'm... I'm sorry, I was just-"

"I never knew you were so keen on cake." Gaara cut in, before she could further stumble through an apology he didn't think was merited. If anything he was suppressing a smile at the thought of Hinata taking up a quarrel with Sasuke Uchiha of all people, on the subject of cake.

"I was not thinking. Of course it's for the bride and groom to decide what they want for the wedding, I just... I meant no-"

"Cake is fine." Sasuke turned to Hanabi, nodding. "Right?"

"Right." Hanabi mustered, frowning slightly as she stared at him. "Excellent, now I have your opinion on exactly one thing to do with our wedding."

Together Hinata and Gaara both flinched, blushing different hues of red at the spat that was now happening before them. At the head of the table Hiashi sighed, motioning for another glass of sake from a passing servant.

Only Sasuke seemed at ease, cocking his head slightly at his fiance with his usual undisturbed expression on his face. "I did not think that something as mundane as a wedding was too much for you to handle."

"Mundane?" Hanabi's voice took a jerk to a high pitch near the end, and she dragged it back like she would a runaway convict. "Do you know how many people are attending this event?"

"Besides the Hyuuga Clan and all of the village? If you do recall I thought it unnecessary from the beginning to have such a large celebration." Turning back to his food Sasuke took a bite of something, chewing slowly while Hanabi steamed beside him, jaw clenched tightly until she let out a long breath and turned back to her food herself.

"No, you are right. This was my idea."

"It...It is good for the village to have something to celebrate. The fireworks on the first night alone will make so many people happy." Hinata murmured softly into the silence. "The children will love them."

The slight jerk of Sasuke's hand at the table had her freezing, realizing which children she was speaking off too late to take it back.

"I suppose the village kids will enjoy it." Hanabi admitted, frowning slightly. "I had hoped it would increase positive relations between the citizens and the clan if they felt part of the festivities."

"T-that is- yes. That's exactly what I meant." Hinata stuttered, trying and failing to ignore the minute shake of Sasuke's head and the twitch of his lips that hinted at him holding back a laugh.

"This sake is delightful." Hiashi cut in, drawing all four of his dinner companion's eyes towards him at once. Face decidedly headed in the crimson direction he eyed the bottle that had been placed before him with interest, as if trying to decipher how the contents within it were made so wonderfully. "Just delightful."

It was during the brief moment of muffled amusement and concern for the inebriated Hyuuga elder that a ripple of heat like the yawn of a newborn dawn warmed the dining room and unbeknownst to all within a goddess stepped through as though through a parted curtain.

Lady Ama, glowing and impossible as the streak of beauty of a falling star smiled at the sight of Lord Hiashi, stepping around the table with interest as his younger daughter rose to remove the sake from his reach.

From the shadowed corner at the engawa's threshold, spilling like ink Lord Susa manifested, shrouded in a cloak of black and blue that was as chaotic as the waves of the ocean mid storm.

"What are you up to, Sister dear?" He crooned through rows of shark like teeth. "We said no tampering."

"I am simply spectating." Ama smiled back, unaffected by the silent threat. "I am allowed to spectate."

"They _are_ most amusing." Susa admitted, watching as she prowled like a lioness around and around a long fallen creature, not on the hunt but on a quest to find the tenderest piece to devour.

"Especially when it's obvious that victory is in my grasp." Ama agreed, eyes brightening to burning embers as she watched the Uchiha boy studying Hinata taking Hiashi's hand, smiling and bemused as she explained he needed to drink some water.

Susa did not let his smile shrink even a centimeter. "Do not get ahead of yourself."

"Oh, Brother please." Ama laughed, the riot of mirth sending sparks from her mouth in the shape of tiny stars. "Just _look_ at them."

Susa did, letting the nightmare darkness of his gaze linger on the Hyuuga girl, on her cheeks brightening to pink at the realization of Sasuke's intent stare upon her, at the flutter of her hands through her hair in nerves.

"Any moment now." Lady Ama sighed, gaze devouring them as she stared. "Any moment now one of them will reach out and their love will silence all your whining."

"Hmm." Susa mused listening for the steps coming down the corridor towards the dining room door. "We shall see about that."

At the liquid pull of darkness swirling him away Lady Ama frowned, eyes sliding backwards to the door being opened to a breathless young man bearing a scroll in hand.

"Lord Hiashi!" Forgetting himself he stepped inside, and no sooner had he taken a look at the present company than he threw himself on the floor in a bow with the scroll raised above the floorboards.

"Lord Hiashi, there is an urgent message. It has only just arrived."

"Letters!" Hiashi replied curiously, swaying in his seat. "How interesting. I used to love letters."

"My Father is not in a state to receive any business right now." Hanabi snapped, placing her chopsticks across her plate and wiping her mouth on her napkin as she stood. "This will have to wait until morning."

"My Lady Hanabi... it... it would be best if you would receive this scroll in Lord Hiashi's stead. It is time sensitive, my lady. Forgive my forwardness. The messenger ran through the day and evening to get it here."

This had the effect of dampening any quiet amusement being had at Hiashi's expense. Only war declarations and death were rushed and so Hanabi received the scroll uneasily, frowning at the Hyuuga emblem that sealed it in black and white wax.

"Sister, perhaps you as the eldest...?" She began, only to have Hinata shake her head slowly. "You are heiress, Hanabi. You have my support."

Quiet, Hiashi looked on clearly attempting to sober up as he sipped at his glass of water.

"Fine." Brusquely Hanabi ripped the wax, unfurling the scroll in a short ribbon to examine it's face. Invisible as always Lady Ama leaned over her shoulder, breathing in the scent of lilac perfume and sweetness that was Hanabi's skin, where beneath a shot of panicked adrenaline was starting.

"Hanabi?" Hinata whispered, starting to rise.

Right behind her Gaara and Sasuke pushed to their feet, studying the way the youngest Hyuuga worked her jaw as she thought, closing the scroll with a loud crinkle in the quiet.

Before she could say anything Lady Ama's pulsing energy flared like a wild fire, setting her endless hair, bright as light rippling with electricity and chaos.

"Susa..." The goddess breathed, hissing his name like a curse. "...you cheating dog."

* * *

The servants that had gathered up the Lord Hiashi did so with strained pale faces and the quiet hush of those wanting to be invisible in the face of something private.

He allowed them, more sober than he had been only moments before. The news which had drained Hanabi of color had also done it's job in killing the buzz which he had been using to hide behind while his new in-laws got to view his youngest daughter at her most prickly.

Hanabi had ordered he be taken care of and then, turning to her sister and Gaara had stated quite forcefully that she was going for a walk. Sasuke she had ignored like he was part of the furniture, much to his chagrin.

The sun had long set, leaving her wandering in the gardens of the Hyuuga compound by the light of the drifting paper lanterns tethered to little bamboo boats on the pond. They glowed, reminding her of ghosts beneath the tendrils of the Sakura tree, among the reeds, making creaking slapping sounds as the liquid licked at their sides.

Arms crossed she stormed through the carefully cultivated blooms that made the air thick with perfume, setting fireflies and other buzzing creatures in swirling patterns to the sky. Crickets and frogs called out greetings she ignored as she stomped onward until the house had faded to a soft warm ember at her back and only the ivy covered walls reaching up to divide her from the village outskirts dared stop her.

It took a lot to sneak up on a Hyuuga, and Hanabi was easily one of the worst to try it on but distracted as she was he appeared like a shadow at behind her before she knew it.

The little snatch of air and the click of her wrist strapped kunai coming loose in their sheaths was all the gratification he got from sneaking around. There was no scream or startled jump, only the glare of her Byakugan lined eyes to watch his chakra rippling calm and unaffected by her bared teeth.

"You should know better than to try to surprise a shinobi." Hanabi snarled, turning back to the ivy covered brick wall like it was more interesting than him. "You could die doing that."

Ignoring that ridiculous statement Sasuke crossed his arms, studying his fiance's tense little shoulders and the glitter of her pearl earrings in the dim light of the moon's touch.

"You never told me your grandfather was a problem."

"And why should I? In case you haven't noticed you share very little with me." Petulant though it sounded Hanabi plowed on. "Maybe if you asked, but you are not present to do that either."

Sasuke took this blow like a man, letting the sting of the accusation settle in his mind before drawing a breath. "I have been rather absent lately."

This must not have been her anticipated reaction, judging by the frown she speared him with over her tense shoulder. Uncertain now, and clearly in unfamiliar territory Hanabi stared for a moment before replying thinly, "It's fine."

Brow raised he waited, disbelief too broadly painted on his face to bother contradicting her. Shoulders drooping at his disarming expression Hanabi turned, chin tucked low so that she looked younger and smaller and in general less lethal than usual. It was easy sometimes to forget the minor gap of age between them but in that moment Sasuke pursed his lips and scolded himself for forgetting she was in more than one way younger than him.

"I was counting on my Grandfather sticking to his plan to not attend the wedding in protest. It was rather key to it going well. He sent his messenger early just to give me time to fret about his unexpected arrival. It was not a thoughtful gesture."

"Protest?" Sasuke frowned, "He is against you getting married-?" He stopped, watching her pale eyes rise to pin him with the obvious so that he stopped, drawing a breath that was half amused half annoyed. "He is protesting you marrying _me_." Another long pause later he added. "That would be why you chose me."

Hanabi straightened at his tone, pulling back her shoulders and reminding him that inside her curved and tiny body there was an iron core. "There were multiple reasons."

"Not least of all that I am excellent for spiting people."

"You do have a sort of gift for it." Hanabi snapped. "Was it cultivated or god given?"

"I doubt anything I get to keep is god given." Sasuke's whispered reply was thin enough to cut and heated with warning so that she bristled, the almost amiable tone of the conversation changing as she raised her chin. There was nothing in her that would succumb to a threat, whether it came from enemy, friend or fiance.

"Don't play wounded with me. We both made our choices logically. You picked me out of need. You do not even _like_ me."

Anything Sasuke had been going to say up until this point evaporated, leaving behind the condensed bit of shame that he always carried around in the presence of Hanabi since hearing her tearful confession for her desires in Hinata's room.

Letting out a sigh he turned away, looking back at the sakura tree set to glowing by the lanterns. The ripples of white light glittered on the black ink of the pond in the dark and the Hyuuga house behind it, stocky and long and glowing from within with light and warmth and the living.

"It is not that I dislike you."

This was by far the worst thing he could have said, as far as Hanabi was concerned. The tremble of her chin was horrible to endure and so she clenched her teeth tightly, trying to swallow the knot in her throat with some effort that did not work as well as she would have liked.

"It is that you do not love me."

Smiling now, because there were little options left to him Sasuke turned back to look at her. She was, if he was honest, everything most men would want. Sharp as a blade just from the whetting stone, elegant and open and confusing. There were layers to her that he had not bothered to notice before and had he been in a place where he wanted more he might have been curious enough to go looking beneath the first sharp prickles of her personality for whatever hid beneath.

The crack in his heart however reminded him, calm like a mother in the face of panic that this was not to be so.

"I think the feeling is mutual."

Hanabi blinked, startled by the factual statement and her inability to even attempt to deny it.

"...Fair." She whispered, able at least to choke back the emotion that had been trying to knot up her vocal chords. "Terrible, but fair."

The sigh that Sasuke offered was all she was likely to get and so she smirked, walking towards him with her lip between her teeth and her soul painfully bared. "Well, at least we're all clear now."

Without anything more to offer Sasuke turned to leave, not wanting to be there when her tears overwhelmed her. The battle would be long, he figured. Nothing that happened to Hanabi without her consent did so easily.

He had only taken half a step when Hanabi called out more quietly, turning him back around. "Uchih- Sasuke, I mean." She shook her head, rubbing at the one tear that had dared to try to escape the cage of her lashes.

With eyes fixed on her hand, wet with the salty liquid coming from her eyes she hesitated, listening to him listening to her for a long moment before sighing. "Will it always be like this, do you think?"

Thoughts of her in his house, of her riot of a laugh echoing in it's quiet halls and her perfumes and jewels crowding his space contrasted sharply with Hinata's milder quieter smiles, the way her things fit around his like they had always been there.

He did not have to speak to hint at the lack of hope he had in the future but still he forced his mouth to move at the same time that he touched her cheek, rubbing the last of the tear away as gently as he could.

"I hope not, Hanabi."

Still, she heard his doubt loud and clear.

* * *

Hearing the word Grandfather should not have been the kind of thing that brought on the lightheadedness before a faint or the weak limbs that overcame her the first time she stabbed someone.

Gentle fist was called gentle because most of the damage could be hidden within the muscles, bones and skin of the enemy. Only when their mouth stained red with blood would any gore show, only then would the companions of a Byakugan's opponent know the true depth of the carnage.

Hinata had gone many years without staining her hands red with anyone's blood but her own. The memory of the day was fresh as the day it happened. The sinking of the kunai into soft flesh, the give as the skin broke and the muscle and tissue parted. The brutal crunch as bone met metal and rippled up to the hilt in her hand.

The same nausea and shakiness overwhelmed her now as it did then. Shaky kneed she paced back and forth at the foot of her futon with her heart in her throat, hands in her hair threading through the darkness of her fringe over and over to keep from pulling.

A soft clink of metal on metal had her spinning to the window, rushing forward to fling it open before Sasuke could jostle the lock free.

His stunned face had hardly a moment to register before she grabbed his wrist and dragged him inside.

"What-?" He started, watching as she shoved the window closed and locked it.

"I was going to ask if you were all right but, evidently...?"

"This is terrible." Hinata murmured, searching his face in the soft glow of her nightstand lamp. Everywhere else the room breathed with shadows and corners and moonlight so that her eyes so pale on her face reflected brightly at him.

There was no denying the worry there, the panic that was hiding just beneath the surface of her skin.

"Hinata..." He frowned slowly, unconscious of his hand reaching for her elbow to steady the fidgety mess that was her body. "What is going on? I understand that he might not be fond of me but few enough people are-"

"No." Hinata snapped, making him start again. "You don't understand."

"Grandfathers are just more fragile Fathers. Hiashi seems easy enough to-"

"Fragile?" It was not like Hinata to interrupt and for that alone he let her take the floor, aware as he would of a knife at his throat of her hand gripping his arm tightly. "My Grandfather is about as fragile as a mountain." More softly she pulled away, rubbing at her face with both hands. "Or that iron cane he liked to use on us when we failed to meet his expectations during training."

This was effective in quieting all of Sasuke's thoughts, distilling them into a laser beam of focus on the weary way she stepped back and sat at the edge of her futon, rumpled and worn despite the beautiful kimono on her shoulders.

Slowly, for it felt as though she might startle as easy as a rabbit he lowered himself down beside her, watching her continued fidgeting as her fingers moved.

"You were not his favorite, I take it."

The slow shake of her head had all the tell tale signs of Hina in anxiety. Eyes lowered, hair hanging like a curtain to protect her she sighed again. "I was never able to meet his standards. I was too...slow, too soft, too..." She fluttered her fingers in the air as if releasing invisible fluff into a breeze. "I was not fit to be heiress. He wanted...something else...something..."

Sasuke thought of the feel of Hanabi's cheek against his fingers only moment's ago. The stuttering flame that still fought the tears lingering her eyes, the resolute clench of her jaw to keep from trembling, the possible detonation of her hurt held back by a thread.

"A bomb." He murmured.

Hinata smiled, thinking of her sister instantly. "Hanabi was his favorite early on. It was at his suggestion that we were set against each other for the title." The smile faded then, recalling the fight she had been unable to finish.

"Hanabi never forgave him for that. She was always looking for ways to-" she paused, turning to look at him with eyes wide at her realization.

"Ah." Sasuke hummed easily, unconcerned despite her obvious distress. "It would appear I did the job well."

"I...I can't be sure- in fact probably I am wrong. That would be so...No. She wouldn't have picked you just to infuriate him. Since his retirement he has been living far from here. We hardly ever see him anymore."

"She could have had worse reasons." Sasuke continued, still unconcerned where her hands fluttered and danced from her sleeves to her hair and back to twitching in her lap. "Why would he suddenly decide to come if he originally said no?"

Hinata froze then, her mouth downturned until she hid her face in her hands. There was only one reason that she could think of that would merit her grandfather's visit on short notice during a time like Hanabi's wedding. She had known, the moment her sister passed her the scroll that she was at fault but still facing it head on made her queasy.

"Me...I did it."

"You?" Sasuke cocked his head, his confusion lasting all of two seconds before he turned away sharply. "The Kazekage."

"No." Hinata groaned, in a way that made it clear he was correct. Curling small she pressed her forehead to her knees and breathed through her fingers hard. "This is _my_ fault. Of course he would come for a marriage that honored the family this way. It's the only thing I could have done to redeem myself in his-" suddenly choked she stopped, the shudder of her shoulders giving her away.

Stunned, Sasuke watched as she wept unfrozen only by the little whimper that came out from behind the curtain of her hair. There was hesitation in his hands, lead in his limbs but still he managed to lay his palm on her back, feeling the ridges of her spine as she cried in near silence.

"Sasuke...who is going to distract everyone when she makes mistakes?"

It took a moment for him to catch up, but swallowing he let out a breath, unable to answer.

"Everyone thinks Hanabi is made of something unbreakable." Hinata whispered, continuing a wet and shaky oration that was seizing his heart in a fist. "She walks as though the world bends to her will, but I know her, and I know you don't think much of her but she's not... she... She's not what she seems. She's..."

Thinking of the tremble of Hanabi's lips in the garden Sasuke swallowed, knowing the word she searched for instantly.

"Vulnerable."

Anxiously her fingers twisted through her hair, pulling back to look at him with dew drop diamond tears sliding down her face. "When the elder useless heiress is no longer there to compare her with... what will they do? What will they do to my baby sister?"

It was insane to see her there with eyes red rimmed and lashes clumpy with her distress, unable to avoid the fact that her lips still made him ache and her searching eyes struck him with a feeling of complete desperation. If there was anything he could do to soothe away those fears he would.

He had to.

Without any words of comfort to offer he shifted, tugging gently on her sleeve so that the next moment she was in his arms, tear stained face shoved against his sternum right up close with the crack through his being that was going to break his heart.

* * *

Arriving home to the silence was not as familiar as it used to be. Once upon a time, not so long ago he had craved the quiet that his house at the edge of the village surrounded by the ghosts of his ancestors could offer.

Now only one ghost looked at him as he entered. With all the lights off it was clear that Neji Hyuuga glowed a faint blue where he stood with arms crossed in the living room. As Sasuke entered he thought perhaps he had been looking at the moon that lazily climbed the sky on the warm summer night, brightening the heavens with it's dim light.

Tossing his shoes behind him Sasuke walked to the couch, throwing himself on it to face the ghost studying him intently, as if he was trying to decipher what strange creature had walked in wearing the Uchiha's skin.

"How well did you know your cousin?"

Interest sparked in the spectres eye and he shifted to face him fully, gifting the blessing of his complete attention.

"Well."

"Well enough to doubt she would refute me if I offered her..." Sasuke stopped, unable to put words to the thing he had so unknowningly left open for destruction. More precious than he realized his heart had always been a thing he rather ignored, numbing it even when it twinged with guilt at turning on friends, at hating in general.

Now it refused to be ignored, exacting vengence on the Uchiha avenger.

"Do not try and coerce her to-" Neji began, growling his displeasure with his words and Sasuke waved a hand, both tired and threatening.

"Don't. What I need to know is how likely it is that she will surprise us both and not refuse me."

Confused Neji frowned some more, rubbing at his nebulous forehead so long ago marred by a curse. Now another curse had forced deep grooves into the skin there, spiritual though it was. The mark of a brother.

"Why are you...?"

"I need her to refuse me." Sasuke snapped finally, the frustration of the situation spilling out of him with ease when directed at the Hyuuga before him. There was hope, stubborn and hot burning inside him along with the ever present ache of brokenness spreading. If there was anyone he knew who would willingly destroy it Neji Hyuuga was it.

Realizing this Neji paused, looking at him as if seeing him clearly for the first time. All his pent up frustration had been aimed at this man, who now gazed at him with an exhaustion that struck a chord of familiarity. There was a lot Neji understood about wanting things he could not have, and being what he was now, a shadow of a person lingering in a world no longer his stressed that ever more clearly.

Truth, he decided, was the only option.

"What happened?" His question was more gently said than he had ever spoken in Sasuke's presence and it made the Uchiha lean forward, elbows on knees to press the heels of his palms into his eyes.

"It's complicated, but it boils down to vanishing not being an option and since we are nearly out of time I need to make sure that...I need to know that she won't..."

"It will cost her to say no." Saying it quickly was the only way the Hyuuga guardian was able to spit it out. If he had had a tongue his tastebuds would have been melting. "It will hurt."

Sasuke's gaze lifted, two orbs of black glistening with an internal war.

"You think she gives a damn about me?"

"Not in comparison to all of her family but..." Neji shrugged. "...Hinata always had strange taste in companions. I was never fond of the bug guy and dog boy."

Sasuke smirked, thinking of the way her eyes had been soft as she spoke of them arriving. It had not even occured to him that they might have been missing from his life. Having even a week without Naruto's presence was sometimes a hard goal to accomplish and so he may have even envied her freedom from her three man cell of the old academy days.

"But," Neji insisted then, drawing him out of his thoughts. "She will say no. She must."

Sasuke nodded, smirk erased as he stood to tiredly drag himself to bed.

"I know. I am counting on it."

* * *

Shuffling back and forth between Konoha and Suna had been a habit of his since his teen years and one that had resulted in first the courting of the Kazekage's sister and their eventual marriage.

Shikamaru did find it bothersome that his life was split right down the middle between two borders and with such different climates but he supposed if there were bothersome things to be endured Temari was by far a better prize than most anything he could think of to alleviate the annoyance.

Still, it grated leaving her when he had to, called back from a short posting hardly after arriving by the very Hokage that had sent him out there in the first place.

Shikamaru sighed as he walked through the mostly empty streets of the village in the direction of said Hokage's house. His own apartment would be empty, Temari having stayed behind until the last possible minute with her brother to keep a handle on the situation on the southern borders of Suna where the fighting had got the fiercest in the last couple of weeks.

They had all assumed that the Kazekage was deterrent enough to keep much of the defected forces of Suna from getting bold and doing more than snatching supplies here and there from unsuspecting import caravans. But they had not realized the level of fear he struck into the hearts of those who were now a threat to Suna's peace.

With him gone, day by day the incidents multiplied until Temari had ground her teeth in frustration and written the letter that Shikamaru had had delivered ahead of him before arriving into the village himself.

Gaara would feel the pressure, he was sure, to return. His brother in law was keen to do all he could to protect the very people that once loathed him but if Naruto's own information was correct and he had in fact asked Hinata Hyuuga to marry him then it made sense he would make time for such an event even with the pressure of his duties back home.

Arriving at the Uzumaki household exhausted and vexed Shikamaru knocked a handful of times before stepping inside, long past the pleasantries of guests.

"I mean, considering this is the home of the Hokage I would have thought at least a lock would be in place." He called, as he always did. Sakura refused to lock the door.

"What for?" her voice had questioned the first time he suggested it. "If someone is stupid enough to walk through looking for a fight no lock is going to stop them and-" she had smiled then, flashing her green eyes with a sheen of violence that always put men ill at ease. "-the sooner they get in the sooner I can finish with them."

It was an unconventional security system, to be sure. Hence why Shikamaru kept the house under surveillance at all times.

"Shikamaru?" Naruto's voice called from down the long hall leading to his office. From the doorway where his friend removed his shoes he could see the blonde head of the Hokage lean back in his desk chair, peering at him thoughtfully despite the lateness of the night. "I didn't think you were arriving until tomorrow."

"You made it sound like an emergency in your message." Shikamaru scolded, realizing perhaps he had been in a hurry uncessarily. "I even told Shino and Kiba to head back with me. We literally just walked through the gates half an hour ago."

"Well, maybe it's for the best." Naruto allowed, shoving himself to his feet to clap his friend on the back in hello.

"So, what exactly has happened that I should be dragged back here again when I had literally just kissed my wife hello in Suna?"

"It's tricky." Naruto muttered, moving Shikamaru back towards the living room where his liquor cabinet sat ready to be assaulted. "And you won't believe it until I tell you it all. So sit down."

"Is this going to take long?" It was part of the course that Shikamaru would sigh regretfully at being kept up late after a day of travelling but Naruto was no liar and so as they sat down he smirked, pulling out the whiskey.

"Yes. But I'm fairly sure you are going to want to hear it all once I start."

"Hm." Shikamaru responded without faith, frowning openly as he received his own glass of whiskey.

"What would happen if Sasuke pulled out of the wedding with Hanabi?" Naruto inquired lightly then, watching as Shikamaru sat up as though pricked on the butt by a pin.

"What did you just say?" Thoughts were sprouting in Shikamaru's mind like spring on fast forward, all budding and ripening in rapid succession so that his head was full of a riot of color and light leading right to the inevitable decay that came after. "Why would he do that?"

"I can't... say but... " Naruto took a swig out of his glass and winced, not accustomed as Sasuke was to numbing his feelings when they got too uncomfortable. "Lets just say I have a hunch it won't end well if they go through with the wedding."

"It's been planned for months." Shikamaru hesitated, alarm bells ringing in his head. "Besides the Kazekage there are high profile guests arriving from all over the Fire Country for the match starting tomorrow, even the village has been prepped for the festivities starting in less than two days. I... I don't think that the Hyuuga can absorb the expense and not start a fight over it. Sasuke's own money was supposed to supplement in paying those bills-" He paused, adding up Shino and Kiba being called back, Gaara's engagement to Hinata and the hesitation with which Naruto was staring at his whiskey.

"...Why did you call Shino and Kiba back?"

Naruto's leg vibrated rhythmically as he bit the inside of his cheeks. Haggard with the work he had been taking on for Sasuke's sake and Sakura's inability to find rest in bed he let out a long shuddering breath.

From behind them both Sakura's voice called their attention, her round belly making her lean heavily on the living room door frame.

"Because there's something going on between Sasuke and Hinata. Isn't there, Naruto?"

Shikamaru was a strategist of the highest degree, able to read people and their minute inflections in voice and movement with ease. He could if pressed categorize by order of most likely the reactions of those people he called friends with unnerving accuracy and Hinata although not as close to him as Sakura, Ino, Chouji and Naruto himself counted as a friend.

And it was low, very low that he found Hinata turning to Sasuke Uchiha with anything remotely like affection.

Let alone when he was engaged to marry her own sister.

"Don't look like that." Naruto put in at the savage sort of annoyance that was taking over Shikamaru's face. "Trust me when I say..." he sighed. "...I wish I was wrong."

"You had best have a lot of very good pieces of evidence for me to even contemplate believing you." Shikamaru rolled his eyes, flopping back onto the couch in exasperation. "I mean, if it were true it would cause a whole host of problems but honestly-"

"Sasuke admitted it to me." Naruto dared finally, copying Shikamaru's flop on the opposite couch before downing the last of his whiskey.

It was not very lady-like, but much like her power in moments of fury sometimes Sakura's mouth ran off before her manners could snatch it back.

"Holy shit."

Shikamaru had to agree.

* * *

The door creaked open. It should not have. Most of the Hyuuga household was maintained by an elaborate set of invisible keepers. Their hands oiled hinges to silence, nailed down floorboards to keep them from squeaking, repaired plaster that peeled.

Theirs was an ancient house, built hundreds of years past and with additions installed every few dozen years when the family continued to grow and grow, like the many branches of their sakura tree. It needed constant maintaining and so Hinata paused in surprise at the sound of the hinge, eyes lining with Byakugan veins in preparation for what she thought might be a handful of throwing stars at her head. A disturbance in the middle of the night would not be well received by someone like Hanabi, and yet she found herself instead blinking in the moonlight faced with her sister's sleepy eyes awake and staring at her.

"You must be tired." Hinata whispered, though their rooms were too large for anyone to ever hear her. "You didn't even throw a knife."

Hanabi did not smile as she usually would, although her eyes crinkled in something that might have been flat amusement. "Maybe I'm in the mood for some hand to hand."

Ignoring this subtle threat Hinata closed the door behind her, shuffling in her slippers to the bed. Unlike her own bedroom Hanabi's was dominated with a four poster bed raised high enough to need steps to reach without hopping. Overflowing with blankets and pillows the posts reached up, holding the canopy of indigo dark curtains pulled back to let the moon in.

Clothes were strewn all over the room, kunai left half sharpened on the whetting stone at a sitting table near the balcony, the armoire opened and it's contents disrupted.

Picking through the chaos Hinata lifted herself onto the bed, shuffling beneath the covers to face her sister with a pinched expression she could not hide.

"I know it's a mess. If you came here to judge you have your own bed to sleep in. Why bother with mine?" Hanabi muttered, voice thick with sleep and her eyes already half closed.

Snuggling into her sister's warmth Hinata blinked her salty lashes. Sasuke had been unable to pause her crying, managing only to slow it down with the fierceness of his grip.

If anything the contact of her body to his had made her heart stutter, shame and dislike for herself washing over her in an acid rain that kept time with her muffled sobs. She had been glad when he had excused himself, his fingers gripping hers tightly before he vanished.

It would not do to sob in her sister's fiance's arms. What was she becoming?

She did not know, and did not want to think long enough to find out.

There were other things to consider, regardless. Things like, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry that Grandfather is coming because of me."

Hanabi's eyes did not open at this apology, her breath remaining slow and steady. "What nonsense are you spouting?"

"Don't lie." Hinata whispered, hurt laced through her minute voice. "Please, don't lie to me."

Nose to nose and sharing breath there was no avoiding the luminous lavender glow of her sister's eyes. They were breathtaking, as they had always been in Hinata's mind. What she did not know was that likewise Hanabi found herself wondering if her gaze like her sister's was able to make hearts stutter with it's brilliance.

"I did not expect you to not accept Gaara just to avoid Grandfather. If I had even foreseen this happening I still would not have wanted you to deny Gaara. What kind of a sister do you think I am?"

Hinata flinched, torn by the wondering the same thing about herself. "We could have waited to announce. We could have-"

"No." Hanabi rolled onto her back, draping a long elegant arm over her face tiredly. "No, Hinata. Stop it."

"Please." Hinata's voice cracked painfully, already thick with tears that were only just beneath the surface of her control. "I just... I'm so sorry that he is coming. I'll protect you. I won't let him do anything."

Hanabi's laugh was not mean, peeking at her sister from beneath her arm she smiled, shaking her head awkwardly.

"Hinata, what is some ancient old thing going to do to us? He can't hit us with that damned cane anymore, that's for sure. Not without risking a broken hip, and we wouldn't even need to move. He is so old likely he would do it to himself."

"That is not what I meant." Hinata floundered, although she was unsure of what she did mean. A part of her was sad, knowing that what she wished she could promise, what really pained her was the fact that in the past there was a Hanabi who would lose her sister.

A small churlish little girl who would be left alone to face the challanges of living in a Hyuuga household without a mother, without her sister and as time went by without her cousin.

"I made a point to snub him." Turning back onto her side Hanabi adjusted her arm beneath her head, forcing a smile to combat the downturned lips on her sister's face. "I can handle it. Sasuke did not seem fazed."

At the mention of Sasuke Hinata was the one to roll onto her back, pushing her fingers together rhythmically as she thought. Hanabi's brows gathered above her nose at the sight of the nervous habit so long absent from her sister's hands.

"I just...I want you to know I'm on your side. Even when I am not around, even when I'm missing." Turning slowly to look once more at her little sister Hinata blinked back the wetness burning her eyes. "I love you, okay?"

Wide eyed Hanabi stared, shoving herself up to her elbow distractedly. "I know... I am sorry, I know you have been busy with the hospital. I just missed you, is all. I didn't mean to make you feel like..." she floundered, waving at her. "I didn't mean to make you cry."

"You didn't." Hinata scolded gently, dragging her back down onto the softness of her bed to cuddle her tight. "I cry over everything. You know that."

"Not really." Hanabi contradicted, long after their silence turned to soft even breaths and Hinata's arms loosened their hold around her into sleep. Studying her sister's sleeping face Hanabi let her own pain show, watching her long into the night. "I can't remember the last time I saw you cry, actually."

When the sun kissed her face awake Hanabi sat up like a shot, listening to the third or fourth knock on her door that had finally punctured through the fog and woken her.

Her bed lay empty but for her own limbs, the curtains wide to reveal the rising pink and lavender hues of a beautiful dawn. Confusedly she scrambled out of bed and to the door, realizing at the last moment that she was in her sleeping gown when Gaara's face appeared at the threshold.

With only her eyes, puffy and red rimmed from crying peeked at him past the door Gaara softened, the melting of his thoughts like butter in the warm sun.

"Good morning." He offered, much quieter than usual.

"Mm." Hanabi replied, wondering where her sister had disappeared to.

"Hinata just left. She is busy today...or at least so I gather." He cocked his head. "I wanted to see if you were all right."

Ignoring the inquiry about herself Hanabi pressed her forehead to the door. "She's gone already?"

"Mhm."

"Oh."

"Perhaps you can join me this morning instead?" Gaara's question was hesitant, polite as always and yet Hanabi smiled at the sweetness.

"I don't know... There is a lot to do. Most of the guests will start arriving today and I-"

"Not a spar." Gaara interrupted, surprising her enough to peek around the door again. "Perhaps just a walk?" His green eyes surveyed her gently. "You don't always have to do the hard thing, you know."

Mouth puckered as she thought Hanabi finally sighed, nodding. "I'll be right out."

* * *

It was earlier than usual for her arrival, and so she was surprised when she opened Sasuke's door to find Hina and Sasu already awake. Pajama clad they sat on their bums on the living room floor, legs stretched out and fingers busy with the endless piles of origami paper Hinata had brought from home.

Cranes were spread in a thin coating on the couch and part of the floor. Oddly shaped and inelegant some of them with one wing bigger than the other, some with funny cocked heads. Hina smiled at Hinata's entrance, offering her evidence of their hard work in her small palm.

"Look, I think I got it."

There was no stutter on her tongue, no hesitation in her face as Hinata approached and crouched down to take the misshapen little bird from her tiny hand. It was hard to imagine how only a short time before arriving in Sasuke's house Hina had been at the very estate Hinata had just left. Alone, and scared she had faced the tutors and instructors her Grandfather and Father had dictated would mold her into the girl she needed to be to lead their clan.

Her stutter, so strong at her arrival had only just begun to manifest. Around the same time that her training had taken off in earnest.

Running a hand through her hair Hinata studied Hina's pale pleased face and wrestled with the pity she felt for her past self.

"Isn't Hina's bird so great?"

Sasu's little voice cut through Hinata's thoughts like a razor, slicing up bits of self deprecation at the same time it induced Hina's smile.

Sitting across from Hina, touching the heels of his feet to her own Sasu focused on the crane he was folding, the tight tidy creases simply cleaner than those on Hina's own. And yet he smiled, proud not of his own accomplishment but of that of his friend.

"Yes." Hinata nodded slowly, smiling. "And Sasu is great."

A hue like the pink dawn rippled up Sasu's neck, his dark eyes blinking rapidly at her in surprise while Hina giggled, nodding in agreement with Big Hinata at her side.

The sound of the bedroom door closing had Hinata standing up, rubbing her palms on her pant legs with nerves she didn't realize she was having until Sasuke was halfway down the stairs, shoving wet locks of his recently showered hair out of the way.

"Good morning," He offered gently, studying her with a softness that was startling.

Not because it was new, or because she had not seen it before but because in the light with his face brightened by the morning sun she could see him, clear as day. Sasu peered at her from Sasuke's face, a grown up version with a hard jaw, an elegant nose, brows serious and dark but the same eyes.

Affection, simple as breathing lingered there, waiting for her reply.

"G...good...Hi. Hi." Her tongue tripped, her lips feeling both numb and tingly. Heat erupted from her toes and rushed up her spine to her ears. Stunned by the sudden recurrence of such a long ago forgotten sensation Hinata turned away, hiding behind the length of her hair as she crouched to gather up cranes just for something to do.

Behind her Sasuke frowned, puzzlement crossing his face as he bent down to gather the cranes as well.

"How are you feeling today?" Gently said it was an innocent enough question but it had the astounding effect of making her feel mildly light headed.

"Fine." Hinata nodded, dumping piles of cranes into a basket he emptied of books and scrolls. "I'm g-g-good. Should I- Miso? For breakfast? I think there's miso in the... I'll just..." She stood, the growing horror at her inability to speak growing as she headed to the kitchen with her head down. This had not happened to her in too long to remember. Years, it had been since she had struggled to speak in front of anyone. The last time she could recall clearly it had been in front of the blonde shining Hokage.

Left behind in the living room Sasuke stared after her, clearly confused. "Hinata? What is the-"

The knock on his door had everyone pausing. Two little heads turned first to the front entrance then to Sasuke standing there with an armful of paper cranes dotted in the Hyuuga and Uchiha clan emblems, barefoot and still not fully awake.

Even before her eyes were lined with chakra and her vision sharp Sasuke knew what Hinata's mouth was going to say, her pink lips forming around the word he dreaded, releasing it into the air without sound.

"Naruto."

There was nothing for it.

In two quick strides Hinata took the children, scooping them up onto her hips with the ease only a battle ready shinobi could. Before he could take a breath she had hurtled up the stairs and to his room, closing it quietly behind herself and leaving him downstairs alone.

Another knock echoed and Sasuke turned once more to the front before searching for the basket in which to put the cranes in his arms. Before he could find it however Naruto flung it open, barging in with his blue eyes lacking the usual sunshine.

"Yo. We have to talk."

* * *

 ** _Sorry, I meant to update a couple hours ago but honestly I fell asleep O_O  
Three chapters in three days though.  
Fingers crossed I manage another one tomorrow.  
Much love,  
inky_**


	21. Chapter 21

"Yo. We need to talk."

Sasuke blinked slowly in response, sighing hard enough to rustle the origami birds that nested in his arms. "You look...well rested." He muttered in reply, bending down to drop the pile of paper cranes into the basket at his feet.

Naruto ignored the jab at the dark circles under his eyes, focusing instead on the important things. "You are getting married in two days."

"Ah." Sasuke hummed, crouching to gather more intricately folded paper. "You would think you were my personal assistant, with the way you go about reminding me of things."

"If anything I hired you as mine." Naruto threw back. "But since you seem incapable of doing the job-"

"It was Shikamaru you hired for that. Don't even pretend otherwise."

"Speaking of Shikamaru." Kicking a bird at Sasuke's face earned the Hokage one tepid glare before the Uchiha continued gathering birds. "I had to call him back."

"From?"

"From?" Naruto allowed himself to gape mildly. "From Suna, where else would he have gone?"

"How the hell should I know where pineapple head goes?" Sasuke frowned at him. "I have my own problems to deal with."

"Yes, you do. Which you have not been dealing with." Naruto's tone lowered to a conspiratorial whisper tinged with frustration, his blue eyes shifting through the house. "You told me you were going to deal with the Hinata thing. You told me to trust you."

Sasuke's frown went from uninterested to focused. "Does this constitute you trusting me? Because bursting into my house early in the morning is not-"

"I just saw her walk in before I did."

For a moment the blood and oxygen within Sasuke's body stilled, as did the wind and light in the world around him. Naruto pierced him with two laser beam pieces of sky and slowly he closed his own eyes against it, looking down at the crumpled origami cranes between his palms with drooping shoulders.

"I am the closest thing you have to family." Naruto's fervent whisper rebooted the world to movement once more, his proximity encroaching as his whisper became more urgent. "You have never invited me to just walk into your house, and I know Hinata." Blue eyes sharp as split ice slowly sliced him apart. "She probably knocks on her own door before walking in, let alone yours. What is actually going on?"

"You don't know her." Sasuke grumbled, shrugging off the hand Naruto tried to place on his shoulder sharply. "If you did you would not be insinuating anything."

Rebuffed, and standing stiff shouldered Naruto frowned more intently. "I am not insinuating anything. You're in love with her and I am seeing a lot of very alarming behavior. I had to call back Shino and Kiba because of you, a thing which might chill the warm relationship we have had with Suna up until now-"

"Why would that have anything to do with-?" Sasuke didn't get another word out, not when Naruto's temper finally flared, along with the spitting gold of his chakra.

"Because if you're going to mess up her life I want her friends here!"

The creak of floorboards on the second floor made Sasuke close his eyes, a show of disinterest in the monumental threat that was the Hokage and his Uzumaki chakra growing in his living room. More important was the ears that might soon be listening.

He was running out of time.

"I told you that I would take care of it."

"You are not doing-"

"I told you that I would take care of it. And I am. You have trusted me with more daunting missions and my judgement in them before, why is this different?" The hiss at the end of the question was underlined by the sudden flashing sharingan eyes.

Naruto shook his head, ignoring the threat of the Mangekyo that rotated before him. "Do you think that the Hyuuga are going to just roll over if you drop their heiress at the altar? Or that they won't tear Hinata apart? I have trusted you many times Sasuke, but if there's anything I know about you it's that feelings are sometimes tricky for you. Having dealt with the consequences of you not knowing how to feel I think I am entitled to be wary."

It was hardly a wince, but the ghost of something painful flitted over Sasuke's features, as fast a shooting star, as quick as a snuffed out candle.

"You can be selfish when something you love can hurt you."

The tiredness which had been clinging to his limbs upon waking, only banished at the sight of Hinata's pale eyes in the morning light now came flooding back, bleeding the crimson from his eyes.

Absently he pressed a hand to his chest, feeling always for that wound which did not show but which bothered incessant through the days and nights. Sofly, voice roughened by something primal he sighed, "I will concede that point."

Surprise lit Naruto's gaze for a moment, allowing his chakra to recede to a dimmed glow, hardly more than the touch of the early morning sun. "Oh."

"You know though... despite what you might think, I understand what you are saying. Still, perhaps you have not had the chance to see that I am ...maybe not better, but at least different." Sasuke shook his head at the confused frown on Naruto's face. "You are a better teacher than you think..." then as an after thought, "...dobe."

The creak of hinges upstairs made Naruto start, looking up the staircase in surprise almost matched by Sasuke's panic.

"Hanabi and I have an understanding. Please," fervent now Sasuke's hand clasped at Naruto's shoulder, the firm grip transmitting his panic. "Hinata doesn't know."

"What don't I know?"

Together the two men turned to look at the topic of their conversation, standing with hands clasped neatly before her and eyes shifting sharp from one to the other.

"Hinata," Naruto began shakily, a half laugh making the name wobble. "Good morning."

"Lord Hokage." Hinata nodded. "I thought I felt...chakra, earlier."

"Ah, yes." Naruto scratched at his chin. "Sometimes Sasuke likes to push my buttons. We're good though, don't worry." A laugh, fake as balls of cotton for clouds escaped him. "I was just here to let him know he needs to get his butt to work more often, wedding or no wedding, ya know?" A slap on Sasuke's back sent him forward a step where he stood. "Lazy bum."

"Hm." Hinata blinked, her pale face uncertain as she peered at Sasuke's unresponsive gaze.

"What are you doing here though? This early too? Aren't guests arriving or anything?" Naruto swung his arms awkwardly, already stepping backwards towards the door.

"I..." Hinata began, pale gaze flicking over the house and finding a crane she shrugged. "We need to finish the origami for the ceremony. I came to help with that."

"Ah." Naruto nodded, rubbing at his neck hard. "Makes sense. Anyway, I should run. Hokage things, and stuff to get done. I'll leave you to your paper...folding thing..." With one last look brimming with sympathy at Sasuke the Hokage stepped out of the house, waving briefly before closing the door.

In the silence Sasuke clenched his teeth on his cheek, waiting with back turned for Hinata to ask something, anything that would end him there and then when all he hoped for now was a couple more days of peace.

Her relieved sigh finally released him to turn, watching the Byakugan fade from her face at the same time that she slapped a hand to her heart. "Wow... I can't believe how close that was."

From upstairs a tiny Uchiha voice called out. "Is it safe?"

Sasuke felt like a liar, even as he nodded and called up, "Yes," while his gaze traced the way Hinata's eyes lit up as she laughed in relief that infected them all.

* * *

He had thought that the walk would have been easier than the spar. That had been the intention. There had been enough worry lines on both the Hyuuga Sisters' foreheads and enough sobering silence from Lord Hiashi at the mention of the dreaded Grandfather to merit being gentle in the morning.

Gaara had forgotten, however that Hanabi did not often know how to be gentle and instead of a calm walk through the gardens he found himself trekking briskly through the woodland on the other side of the Hyuuga Manor wall where the trees grew tall and lanky and the light filtered in strange intervals of paling yellow through sparkling dust.

"Hanabi." Gaara called. Ahead of him the Hyuuga heiress marched on, steps hurried and back straight as thought carving a way through invisible obstacles. Despite the immaculate shape in which the Kazekage always kept himself he could feel the first trickles of sweat gliding down between his shoulder blades.

"Hanabi." More sternly now he stopped and ahead the Hyuuga continued, paused and finally sighed, hanging her head with hands on her hips in defeat before turning to look at him.

"What? Have I exhausted you already?"

Gaara tried not to let the rapid rise and fall of his chest show as he threw her a look. "You aren't walking. You're running."

It was true. Already they had left the gates behind, and only the distant wall at the very outskirts of the Hyuuga Manor could be seen through the trees and bouquets of ferns in big plumes along the forest floor. Hanabi smiled without mirth, taking a deep breath that admitted to the strain she had been putting herself under despite the banter.

"You would be running too, if you knew who was arriving today."

"I have no experience with grandfathers." Gaara admitted, walking slowly towards her in the hopes that she would not take off at a trot again. "But I feel like this reaction is not...normal."

"Neither is my grandfather." Hanabi muttered, as she scrubbed a long line into the pine needle covered ground with her boot. For a moment there was hesitation to say more. Grandfather was no secret, but then he was also not spoken of, like the boogeyman. To suggest he did something improper was to be hushed by the Hyuuga relatives who surrounded her at all times. To say anything of the sort to someone outside the family was grounds for exile.

It had been tempting for a time, to think about being left out in the cold without her family's backing. But in the end she had like every Hyuuga before her admitted she would rather face the monsters she knew, than those out there without names or faces.

That, however was what she had thought as a child. Now she lifted the curve of her brown hair not pulled back into a ponytail to display the white scar often hidden by her fringe. "He did this to me when I was five."

Gaara stilled completely as his eyes took in the scar, too pale to be seen without being pointed out and bared but clear as day once naked.

"I was tired, somewhere in the middle of morning training." Hanabi explained when his eyes slid from the old wound to her face. "He has a cane he favors when annoyed."

"Hanabi-"

"When Hinata was little...he would make her train with me. She would fall, you know, right before I did."

Anything Gaara was going to say slid back down his throat, tightening around his vocal chords as he watched her looking back at him as if expecting something, watching for the moment when his face would betray whatever she was expecting him to feel.

"He would hit her, hard. Once he broke a rib that way, and he would tell us how in battle a mistake could mean our undoing. How he was teaching us how to survive." She breathed in deep then and let her mouth turn into something that should have been a smile but with the words that accompanied came out sour.

"I never asked her if she did it on purpose or not. When he decided she was not worth training any longer I actually feared that I wouldn't survive without her there to take the brunt of it. Doesn't that say something awful about me?"

And there, blooming in the green of Gaara's eyes she found not the pity she had been expecting, but fury.

It was startling enough that she paused in surprise, letting out a sigh that was too much like a mewling cry. Slapping a hand over her mouth she blinked, and blinked again to keep the wetness of her tears from reaching her lashes.

Unlike the look in his eye Gaara's voice was soft, his touch gentle on her arm as he tethered her to the earth beneath her feet. "It's all right... It's all right that you were scared. It's all right that you are scared now."

Shaking her head was all Hanabi could do in reply, struggling against the knot winding tighter and tighter in her throat.

"Yes." Gaara's firm reply came with his hands on her shoulders, gripping tight, the tickle of his wild hair against her forehead. "Yes, it's all right. You have to be afraid, you have to, because you need to be brave too."

Gently his hands moved from her shoulders, smoothing up her neck and to her face to hold the cheeks now drenched in the tears she had been unable to hold. "That is all that I just learned about you, Hanabi. I learned that you were a little girl who was afraid and brave. Nothing else."

Trembling visibly Hanabi sucked in a shaky breath, letting him wipe at her cheeks with his thumbs for a moment longer before remembering who she was, and who he was in turn. Stepping back slightly she laughed, kneading at her eye with the heel of her palm awkwardly.

"You probably didn't know you would be getting such a mess of a little sister-in-law, did you?"

Gaara's face closed like a book at her words, mouth pressed tightly into a thin line before nodding, just once in agreement. "I will admit... I did not expect you."

Before Hanabi could look at him a moment longer, she turned to head back the way they came.

* * *

Susa's grin was manic.

Row upon row of teeth glistened white and sparkling in a mouth too small to contain them all. Feral and otherworldly he smiled, and despite it's horrific nature the smile had more beauty in it than anyone deserved.

Anyone but a god, at least.

He could hear her coming, through the dimensions of time and space, plowing through the realm in a heated lava storm.

Darling sister that he had.

Before her imminent arrival he dropped himself backwards, knowing that the clouds around him would gather to sustain his tall languid form and as she burst like a star in his world, all fiery rage and indignant spark he laced his hands behind his head and grinned some more.

"Sister dear."

"You are a disgrace of a god!" Her scream had a thousand voices in mourning, one throat for a choir of scorn. Beautiful face pinched to show the raw molten power beneath the smattering of freckles across her smooth nose. Between each spark on her skin light flared and she glowed. It would have been a fearsome thing to behold, enough to reduce a normal man to trembling, a strong man to gawking, the strongest to wincing.

Susa was no man.

Baring his teeth, less in a smile and more in a growl he sang. "Shall we scrap the wager, and fight this out?"

Ama panted before him, her hair a mane of swirling gold like the licking flames of fire from the sun. Her kimono, usually so beautiful and calm raged with volcanic eruptions across it's artfully stitched expanse, rippling in the tide of her frustration.

For one second, just the smallest moment between breaths he thought perhaps she might lash out, might take him up on the challenge but then rationality cooled the exploding stars within her eyes and the power dimmed, reducing her once more to the calm deity he loathed.

"No." she shuddered as the world released a sigh of relief. "No, too many innocents would be taken, too many lives lost." She glanced out of her periphery towards the earth where the world continued to turn and despite her usual self control her eyes burned.

"Careful." Susa sang, all teeth gone and replaced by the overwhelming serenity of his usual smile. Leaning back again now that the threat of a fight was gone he closed his eyes. "If you scowl too much you'll burn their crops to cinders."

"How did you manage to get that old Hyuuga corpse from leaving his den to haunt her?" Ama snarled, ignoring his warning. "Why do you destroy everything? Why must you?"

Susa made a face as though she had asked him a rude question. "Are you truly seeking answers? Please, tell me no."

Ignoring him some more Ama paced back and forth among the clouds, leaving sizzling scorch marchs where she touched atoms.

"It is in everyone's best interest that they fall in love, that they learn to trust others, that they open up to hope. Everyone wins."

"Blagh." Susa gagged. "How boring."

"Boring? Boring?" Ama took a breath, hearing a high pitched ring in her voice that made her back pedal. It was her fault, in the end. She had allowed the indulgence of the Uchiha spirit into the fray. She had thought that Neji who now owed her the saving of his soul would encourage them to seek affection from each other if the Suna Kage and the younger sister proved inadequate. It made the most sense, of course it made the most sense for them to live happily ever after with those they were previously engaged to, but if that did not work she had been certain that the two ghosts would do what they could to fix them with each other.

Susa had clearly known otherwise, and agreed happily to the meddling of their elder brothers only because it would serve his purpose. Only because he knew their goals differed.

"I do not care for happily ever afters." Susa drawled, studying his finger nails. "What is there for us to do in a happily ever after, Sister dear?"

Simmering visibly beneath her goddess skin the sun deity snarled, feral as the fox she had placed within her chosen sun-child ruling below.

"This is not the end of it." Turning to leave she cast one more glance at the earth below, wincing at the heat her anger had induced and with a wave of her hand tried to draw it back as she disappeared, not caring enough to see if her attempt worked.

No sooner had she vanished in a flutter of embers through smoke than Susa snapped his fingers, forcing like unwilling dogs on leashes a raven and a sparrow to appear on his arm.

"You two." Susa murmured softly, stroking first one head then the next of the unnaturally still birds upon his arm. "Go about your business. I love watching you both argue back and forth about what's best for those two children- oh and..." He smiled wide, wide enough for them to feel the possibility of fitting within that razor sharp mouth in one bite should he feel like a morsel. "...don't let me catch you wandering from realm to realm poking your little beaks in other people's business,yes? You wouldn't want to remain feathery for the rest of eternity, would you?"

Neither bird replied, or moved a muscle as he stroked them. They watched him instead, the raven's glowing red eyes rotating black flecks and the sparrow with unnaturally white pupils lacking in iris but filled with something akin to terror.

* * *

It was going to be the hottest day so far, judging by the heatwaves rolling from the dirt road. Sasuke winced against the scorch, rubbing a trickle of sweat from his eye only moments after stepping out of the coolness of the house into the blast of the summer sun with pack on his back and Hina's tight grip on his hand.

"What is wrong with the sun goddess today?" He muttered, glancing up with a glare at the heavens where the light nearly deigned to blind him.

"It's a pity," Hinata sighed. "I used to enjoy rain and sunshine alike but now..."

"Hm." Sasuke's agreement was absent minded, watching as she led Sasu by the hand off the dirt road through the tight deer path that twisted between encroaching walls of blackberry bush and into the thicket.

"Are we going to the pond, today?" Hina asked, her little mind noting the strange direction with a quickness Sasuke appreciated. A shake of his head was all he replied with before Hinata ahead called out.

"Today we are heading to a waterfall. Wouldn't you like to catch some fish?"

"For lunch?" Hina piped up, tickling a laugh out of Sasu with her never ending appetite. A little embarrassed Hinata laughed as well. "Yes, for lunch."

"Won't this be a long hike?" Sasuke tried and failed to sound casual. In his mind there were a lot of things Hinata had on the schedule. The wedding being the least of her priorities. Only the night before she had cried into his clothing at the imminent arrival of family. She had also been pleased to hear of her friends Kiba and Shino.

There was as well Hanabi in the final fits of pre wedding chaos, and Gaara with his sappy puppy dog eyes following her everywhere.

The feeling in his chest would have confused him a month ago, and in a fit of impatience he would have called it distaste at the thought of even having so many people vying for his attention. Now he knew to call it jealousy.

Jealousy for they had a legitimate call on her time, whereas he was trying not to point out the fact she shouldn't be here... lest she leave as she should.

"Probably most of the morning." Hinata admitted, her cheery voice on the verge of over doing it. "But we're up for it, aren't we, Sasu-kun?"

"Yes!" Sasu hopped two of his steps, swinging her hand wildly before rushing off in a run. At Sasuke's side Hina fretted, her body poised to follow only to snap to a stop with a squeeze to Sasuke's hand, her big eyes beseeching.

"What?" He smiled, thumbing her nose gently. "Go on, I'm not going to stop you."

Allowing herself a grin she took off, little legs pumping hard up the slow sloping incline of the hill they would be climbing to reach a small enough waterfall for them to enjoy in the blazing summer day.

"She didn't want to hurt your feelings." Hinata mused, nervously rubbing the sweat that had nothing to do with the sun from her palms on her thighs.

"She worries too much about feelings in general." Sasuke grumbled good naturedly, waving a hand in a shoo fashion at Hina who stopped to look back with a moment of indecision on the crest of the first hill.

Hinata laughed without much humor as she silently agreed with his assessment. Hearing that tone, that slight uncertainty Sasuke paused, lifting a hand to block the sun as he studied her more frankly.

"Why are you here?"

Like Hina earlier, Hinata snapped to a stop at his words, turning to look at him with the same wide eyes, mouth parted in surprise as she stared.

"D...don't you want me here?"

This was not the response he had expected, and so he balked for a moment, catching his definitive and damning "Of course I do," from escaping his mouth.

"That's not what I meant." He tried, succeeding just barely in sounding calm. "Yesterday everyone was in a panic about your Grandfather. And then there was Kiba and Shino... the Kazekage-"

"I know." Hinata sighed deeply, burying her face into her hands to hide the shame. "I know... I should be home. I told Gaara to take care of Hanabi and I left..." Slowly she turned, looking in the direction the children had gone and towards the sun still aiming to rise to it's noon position through the tops of the trees, setting everything to shining emerald glory.

Among the shadows, in the coolness of the dark Hina and Sasu's little shapes fluttered like birds from one side of the path to the other, finding toadstools to inspect, butterflies to follow, their hopping feet a rhythmic beat to the melodic sing song of birds happy in the trees.

"I know it's selfish." Softly whispered, he would have missed the admittance if he had not stepped closer without thinking, feeling the tingle in his hands that always overcame him when she held still long enough for him to feast his eyes on the quiet of her emotions swimming beneath the surface of her skin.

"I am an expert at selfish." Sasuke dared, drawing her pale eyes to him finally, her mouth pressed into a thin line as she contemplated his words. "If...this is where you want to be, I don't think that counts as selfish, considering the circumstances." He tried, for all he was worth not to sound relieved, not to let the tremble of something that might have been delight shake his voice at her revelation.

Hinata's lips pulled slow into a smile full of knowing, brows rising. "I don't think I have ever considered you selfish."

It took some effort not to gape openly at her. Letting out a scoff he raised both brows right back. "Liar."

Offended, though mostly bemused Hinata stepped back slowly in the direction the children had disappeared to. "I am not lying!"

"We found a creepy bug!" Sasu's call drew both their attention and he waved his hands frantically, as though they couldn't see him from their short distance away. "Big and squashed and spotted!"

"Speaking of bugs." Sasuke continued, following after Hinata's energetic steps again. "What about Shino, and Kiba?"

For a moment she said nothing, walking with head down towards the children's excited chatter where they crouched with sticks with which to poke at the new creature they had discovered.

"They can wait." Softly said the statement felt like she was proclaiming something to herself. "It's okay for them to wait...considering."

One glance at him let her know he had questions and she sighed, reaching out to run her fingers through Sasu's hair the moment they reached the little duo. "Considering how long they decided to make me wait too."

* * *

Every window in the Hokage Tower was flung open in an effort to let cool air in. It was a misguided attempt, considering that the air outside was hotter than the already sweltering air inside.

"Tch." Naruto hissed as he stormed through into his office. Shikamaru who sat in his chair with feet raised on his desk didn't bother moving from his comfortable position, eyes focused on a short scroll with the Suna insignia stamped on it's back.

"Good morning." Naruto snapped without humor, hands on hips as he waited for Shikamaru to move. His friend hummed a reply but didn't bother raising his eyes from the paper. "Temari says there's trouble. There's going to be more soon too, once the enemy realizes that Kiba, Shino, Kankuro and my darling wife are all leaving Suna on it's own." Finally flitting his eyes to the Hokage he raised both brows. "One would hope it's all for a good reason."

"You can keep doubting me all you want." Naruto didn't have the heart for banter as he shook his head, rubbing at his eyes as though to wipe the last few hours from his mind. "But you are wrong. I spoke to him this morning."

Shikamaru finally dropped his feet from the desk, pulling the cigarette from his mouth to put out in one fluid motion. "And?"

Naruto's head shake didn't bode well. Blue eyes cloudy with worry he shrugged. "He says he and Hanabi have an understanding... And that I should trust him."

It looked as thought Shikamaru had taken a bite of glass, the way he worked his jaw for a moment before glancing out the large windows at his back to the village he and his comrades worked so hard to protect. "Trust is a big word, with someone like Sasuke."

"It was not a demand." Naruto continued, trying and failing to explain the feeling of having Sasuke look him in the eye with panic at the sound of Hinata's steps down the stairs. "I do think he is trying to do the right thing, Shika."

"Sasuke Uchiha's version of right and our version of right has not always been the same." Shikamaru glanced at him sternly. "You have a blind spot for Sasuke that has no match."

"Give me a break." Naruto growled, pulling his chair away from Shikamaru possessively before flopping onto it in exhaustion. There had been no sleeping for him all through the night despite his attempt to get to bed at a reasonable time. Instead he had thought about the many people he cared for and how they would all of them feel the impact of Sasuke's decision one way or the other. Gaara, for one kept coming to mind. It had been days since he had last seen the Kazekage, and Naruto was shamed to feel glad. The idea of keeping these things from his friend had made him sick enough to skip breakfast.

"I need to have damage control set up." Shikamaru murmured, pressing a clenched fist to his mouth as he thought. "If Temari were here I would be able to count on her keeping Gaara calm."

The insinuation that Gaara might have good reason to lash out had Naruto burying his face in his hands, ending with the palms of his heels digging into his eyes. "I wish I knew what was going on in Hinata's head, too. Sasuke, I think I understand, but with her-"

"What about Hinata?"

The knock came a second after Kiba's voice broke through the conversation and Shikamaru turned with Naruto to find the doorway filled to the brim with Akamaru's large girth and Shino's palm raised to the wood frame. "Sorry for intruding." He added gently, shooting Kiba a look that Kiba ignored.

"Not sleeping in?" Naruto blinked. "Shikamaru said you all got in late last night I thought for sure all three of you would be out until noon today."

"We would have been, but right _after_ I had fallen asleep your strategist showed up at my window to let me know it was imperative we spoke to Hinata early in the morning." Kiba scowled, arms crossed with his sleepless displeasure. "So again, what about Hinata?"

" _Did_ you in fact talk to her?" Shikamaru ignored the question smoothly for the second time, leaning against the window to try to show disinterest when his brain was so busily dissecting Kiba's tone of voice and attitude for clues on how the meeting had gone.

"No." Shino put in before Kiba could reply with something else testy. "We went to the hospital looking for her...but they told us she had not been on the schedule for several weeks."

Shikamaru's head whipped to Naruto who ducked into his shoulders as though anticipating a blow to the back of his blonde skull. "Oh?" Shika tried, sounding terse. "Is that so?"

"Stranger still, when we went to the Hyuuga Main House her father told us she was at the hospital."

Shikamaru, Shino and Kiba's eyes were boring a hole into Naruto's head. He could feel it even through the palms he pressed to his face and the chaotic ringing of his ears as he pictured Sasuke's gaze again, dark eyes more human than he recalled them being for many months, perhaps even years.

"Naruto." Kiba finally piped up, turning to look at him with wariness he could not hide. "Why are we here?"

Long missions were not uncommon for shinobi, but Shino and Kiba were in a different caliber. Besides anbu hired for extended periods they were the only pair in the last decade that had been sent out for such long assignments. It was assumed this was a requirement of the job, a clear sign of need by Suna. Naruto allowed the rumor to take hold and encouraged it when he heard it by not denying it.

The truth, however was that Kiba had requested to be allowed to stay on in Suna. And, as per usual Shino had decided to stay with him for the time being. One month had led to two and then six, and then the year had gone by without either of them showing their faces in Konoha.

Ino had even commented to Sakura more than once that she thought Hinata had stopped receiving letters, if there had been any exchanged in the first place.

As a result the scroll asking for their return had not been a request. It had been an order.

When Naruto did not re-emerge from behind his hands Shikamaru sighed, wishing for the moment that he had not just put out his cigarette although too lazy to bother lighting it again now. "We need you to check on Hinata, discreetly and without causing her alarm."

Kiba's face twisted into something sour as he turned away, busying himself with petting his hands through Akamaru's broad furry side. Shino's pinched mouth telegraphed his hesitation before he murmured. "Are we looking for anything in particular?"

"Something off." Shikamaru shrugged. "Something... unsettled."

"You know there's going to be plenty _off_ about me talking to Hinata. Why are you even pretending you don't know. Everyone knows."

Shino flinched, raising a hand to place on Kiba's shoulder that his friend shrugged off. "No, I just want to know. I've been avoiding her for over a year for a reason. Tell me why you're forcing us to talk to each other. What is wrong with her?" This was directed at Naruto who now looked back at his friends with a tiredness that was unmistakable.

"I am hoping that there is nothing wrong, actually." His offer only made Kiba turn away again, exasperation making him throw his hands up.

"And anyway." Shikamaru added when Naruto did nothing to defend himself again, "why are you complaining about us making you talk to your friend? Isn't a year long enough to be pouting, Kiba? Get on with it. Shino, talk some sense into the man."

Softly Shino sighed, shoulders drooping with defeat. "I have been trying."

"Go." Shikamaru waved them off before Kiba could continue to protest. "Go before this gets tiresome."

There were mutters from Kiba and a few growls of agreement from Akamaru before they exited the office, Shino shutting the door quietly behind them and finally left alone Naruto turned to Shikamaru, waiting for the verdict.

"If he proves untrustworthy..." His friend began, picturing the redhead and piercing green eyes of his brother in law, the furious glare of the Lord Hiashi and the many other guests entering Konoha for a celebration that may not even happen. The thought of just his brother in law alone had his stomach rolling.

"Don't tell me." Naruto sighed, clenching and unclenching his hands on the tabletop as he thought, contemplating again the choice he had decided to make. "Don't tell me, Shikamaru. I already know."

* * *

Breaking the branches Hina and Sasu had gathered felt a little like snapping bones. Brow furrowed Hinata focused on the creak and crack of the sticks in her hands before stacking them carefully for the fire that Sasuke was starting.

At his side Sasu watched with chubby fingers on Sasuke's knee, eyes intently focused on the cupped palms Sasuke offered between them. "You breathe, the bigger the breath, the bigger the flame, so long as you focus your chakra right."

"Oh." Sasu whispered, watching intently as Sasuke pursed his lips and focused, half whistling a lick of flame from his mouth in a kiss. Without thinking Sasu's own mouth pursed into a kiss shape and Hinata found herself smiling.

"That's it." Sasuke nodded, lowering the dancing embers that had caught the twigs in his hands to the hole Sasu and Hina together had dug. "You'll have it in no time."

"Katon." Sasu whispered, like casting a spell, his dark eyes mesmerized by the frolicking flame. Bemused, Sasuke ruffled his hair. "Go on. This will be useless if you and Hina don't catch anything to cook on it. She doesn't seem to be having much luck."

Despite their short legs the children were making due. They had made quick work of the hike. In the heat, the shadows of the trees were a welcome reprieve not just for their vulnerable skin but for their eyes. Bright as it ever got the very grass shone a neon green in the direct touch of sunlight and so together the four hugged the tree line up and up the curving path on the hills until the sound of pouring water reached their ears.

The thought of a dunk in chilly water had had Hina and Sasu squeaking with delight, scrambling haphazard over softened fallen tree trunks covered in carpets of lime green moss, falling through the ferns and lichen strung branches of the underbrush until they reached the banks of a smallish creek frolicking down the hill in twisting curves.

In the spring the water level rose to hug the bank walls now dry and sandy where the trees held back the stones, but in the heat of a boisterous summer the water was a less threatening ribbon through the gray of the flat slimy stones.

Following the glitter of the liquid through the evergreen and roan red hues of the trees the spray of the waterfall could be felt dampening the dry air with a mist that was delicious on the skin as it was to the nose.

Thick as perfume the scent of the trees lifted in the humidity, making Hina pause with eyes closed, perched on a bleach white stone with nose in the air, dragging air into her lungs deeply for the pleasure of the resin. "Clean." She had whispered, and Sasu had grinned. "Race you to the waterfall!"

It was there, at the base of the cascading river that a pool had been carved by the ever pounding splash, darker green as it deepened with the flick of fish tails and the shadow of their passing to entice. With legs crossed and tongue sticking out Hina sat dangling a long string weighed down by an unfortunate worm at it's end. She had for the better part of an hour sat perfectly still, but for a sneeze that had startled the one interested fish right back into the shadows of the pool.

"Right." Sasu nodded, straightening his spine in determination as he watched the object of his affections sigh with slumped shoulders. "I'll get plenty!"

With the swish of the ferns against his legs he was gone, shouting at Hina that he was coming. Her giggled reply and the wave of her hand the only thing Sasuke and Hinata could hear from a distance.

It never ceased to stun, the way Sasu moved around Hina. What Sasuke now felt like an agony he handled with a comfortable ease that left him both envious and proud. The thought of what he could have been had never lingered in his mind. Living in the past was exactly what he had been trying to avoid doing since his tenth birthday and so it came as a surprise to look back now and find that perhaps he could have been a different more caring person.

A more likeable person.

A better person.

Hinata watched, not Sasu and Hina but Sasuke as the flames danced. On him the mottled black of the tree canopy shadows flickered and swayed in rhythm with the breeze through his hair. And her eyes, so gifted as they were could see the elegance that was the features of his face, the long extend of his neck and the hard pleasing angle of his jaw and still, it was the expression that he wore which gave her pause, igniting the warmth in her belly that made her hands shake.

"He might have made a good big brother." Sasuke's whisper surprised even him, the thought coming out unrequested and Hinata stilled, for fear of startling him into quietness with her movement.

"Yes. He would have." Hugging her knees to her chest she waited for Sasuke to turn to look at her finally, and when he did his eyes did not linger, focusing instead on poking the juvenile flame they had lit between them cautiously.

"You make a lot of very assertive statements about me, you know." This was said teasingly but it had the effect of making Hinata's face burst with heat rather violently.

"I-I'm... I'm sorry! I just... I just - you're right! I don't know why I do that- it's not my place to-"

"Hinata." Her name was half a laugh, forcing her to stop by pressing her mouth to her knees hard. "It's fine."

Small as she became with her limbs all tangled defensively Sasuke wondered how easily she would fit into his embrace and looked away again, blinking the thought out of his head like trying to plug the river.

"You know more about me than I realized. But then, I suppose most people do." He thought back to the way the village looked at him in the days after the massacre, how women paused to whisper softly to each other, how hands sometimes landed on his head in pats like those offered to stray dogs.

Like a stray dog he had learned to growl and bite after a time, it was easier than always weeping.

"Hyuugas are taught to be secretive." Hinata admitted, once she had breathed herself to a reasonable pink shade and her tongue once more allowed itself to be useful.

"That would be why no one mentioned the Grandfather, then?" Sasuke dared look at her again, glad that with her own attention focused on the fire she was easier to study. The smoke that billowed from the younger greener branches Hinata had just snapped travelled in elegant plumes up, making the world shimmer in the heat so that for a moment she wondered if she was dreaming.

Thinking of grandfather, however brought her firmly back to reality.

"Hanabi should have told you." She murmured, thinking of the scar that hid behind Hanabi's wild hair. Unwilling as he was to blame Hanabi for anything Sasuke let out a sigh.

"Perhaps she would have, had I given her a chance."

Hinata did not look at him still, although the knowing smile that graced her features told him she was listening intently. "No... I don't think she would have."

Sasuke savoured the word before offering it, "Why?"

This had the desired effect of lifting her pale eyes to him, weighing the question and whether he really meant to get an answer. Stubbornly he pushed on.

"What is it he did?" What could anyone do to someone like you to make you so afraid?

With her fingers she twisted and untwisted the coil of dark hair at her shoulder, winding and unwinding as she let her legs relax, tapping her toes together in a way that made him instantly think of Hina, her nervous twitches and the way she turned her mouth to the side when uncertain.

"I... I was ten or so. Hanabi had only recently began training in earnest, and perhaps because he was disappointed in me, or determined to make her a stronger fighter he gave her no slack." Watching the fire, her gaze shimmered without seeing, focused on the floorboards of the training room where she had spilled so much sweat and blood and tears through her younger years.

Sasuke remained still as he watched her, intently enough to see the first gathering dew drops at the corners of her eyes.

"I...I had begun to get scared that one day he would hit her so hard she would not get back up. Maybe I was treated more gently at that age or I have simply forgotten but I felt... I felt like he was being so much harsher with her." Closing her eyes Hinata breathed in the smoke, let it burn in her lungs, breathed it out and told herself that's why she wanted to choke.

"So I began to fall, before she did."

It had never occured to Sasuke that this was how the story would go. Never in all the years he shared with Itachi had his brother slowed, or withdrawn for his brother's sake. No, in him was the epitome of excellence, a goal post set ever further back for Sasuke to aim for. This was the opposite. This was deliberate failure.

"I don't know how he figured it out." Hinata kept her eyes closed, in the hope of the tears not overflowing, but they always did. For that reason alone the memory was often buried somewhere in the depths, somewhere along with Hina and what she had once been before the breaking began.

"I fell, I could see Hanabi shaking she was not going to last and he had already lost his temper... so I let myself fall, pretended to trip over the footwork, something...and he turned..." Licking her lips she sighed, listening for the shrieking laugh of the children by the waterfall, squeaking out as a fish flailed to get away.

"I closed my eyes because I thought the cane was going to hit me right on the head. I was so sure." Hinata blinked, looking up to find Sasuke standing, frowning at her from across the flames.

"He hit her so hard the paper screen got splattered with it- with her blood, I mean. She didn't cry out, not that time. He hit, and she was silent. I thought...for a second I thought she was dead." Hurriedly, before she could stop herself Hinata plowed on. "Y...you know, I don't think I have ever told this to anyone, I'm... I'm sorry if I'm not making sense-"

"Shut up." Sasuke's order was too gentle to be coarse, followed as it was by his side coming to rest against her own. "You make sense."

With her eyes blurry from smoke and tears she didn't make complete sense of the picture until his hand gripped her wrist, until the feel of his other palm slid across her shoulder blades and startled the strangled sob in her throat out of her mouth.

It wasn't until his body cradled her against him, until the shift of her limbs accomodated to his lap, fitting where she had not let herself wonder if she fit that her heart took up arms and began a pounding protest in her chest.

Face buried within the folds of his sweater she gripped tight the hands he offered to hold, aware that her face was heating at the same tempo as the fire, even as something in her began to slowly shatter.

Because she had found, finally the one way she could stay. The one way that perhaps she could keep her sister from facing it all on her own and it filled her with dismay.

 _I can break again._ It pulsed through her as his arms tightened around her, as his breath warmed the curve of her neck and her thoughts drifted to how his mouth might feel if he kissed there.

 _I can do this. I can do this. It's okay, I can. I can..._

When her whimpers turned to sobs Sasuke didn't question why, not with the picture he had in his mind of Hanabi's blood splattered on the pristine white of sliding doors. He let her weep into his clothing, let her grip him tightly even as inside her a pain familiar to his own began to burn.

* * *

 _ ***throws belated chapter and runs***_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **Inky**_


	22. Chapter 22

It was too hot for walls. The fitting, which Hanabi had been looking forward to and now dreaded had been moved from the stuffy upper floor dressing room to one of the many unused rooms that lined the engawa. Facing out to the gardens and with the walls removed it was the most likely place to keep cool. With the lack of obstacles the maids hoped a small breeze my grace their work, and perhaps keep their mistress' temper at a reasonable sting.

Hanabi still found herself sweating uncomfortably as a seamstress moved about her adjusting kimono layers in meticulous detail while junior attendants dabbed inconspicuously at her neck and face when a meandering drop of sweat was too obvious to ignore.

The sound of someone's polite clearing of the throat had her suddenly stiffening, thinking for one horrific moment that Gaara stood there, seeing her in all her bored unkempt glory. With hair piled up in a mess on her head and her under robes sticking to her in awkward places she could hardly think of anything she would loathe more. It was therefore a relief to hear Father's voice calling out, "Would I be intruding if I spoke with you, Daughter? Shall I return a different time?"

"If you wait too long it will have to be until after I am married." Hanabi replied, wincing at the sudden tightening of the obi at her back.

"Well then, I will try to be brief, you seem rather occupied."

"Do I, now?" Hanabi laughed as a maid walked towards her with a long curling scroll in hand that she held up for her to inspect. "The list of confirmed guests, Lady Hanabi."

"Ah." Hanabi sighed, scanning it with only a brief sharpening of her Hyuuga eyes.

"Perhaps a different time would be better." Hiashi tried again, wandering through the room slowly to inspect the dozen different kimono that had been pulled from the treasury for the heiress' wedding. They stood with their panels draped over poles to display the intricate designs hand woven into elegant silks in meticulous patterns.

There was the kimono for the morning when the family would gather to wish the bride luck in her coming nuptials. There was the one for noon day when first of the formal dinners would take place and the important guests would have the first glimpse of the bride to be. Following that would be the kimono for the polishing of the bride, where her makeup and hair would be done in the traditional style, and on and on it went unending to the final gown, a muted dark blue thing, a single blazing Uchiha fan to brighten it's back for her walk to her new home.

Delicately Hiashi touched the painstaking stitches that had emblazoned the red fan onto the navy and caught Hanabi looking at him intently over the edge of the scroll being held up for her inspection.

"I don't think I will be doing much besides getting dressed for the next two days, Father. I'm listening, please."

Eyeing the maids walking around with their faces carefully placid and their eyes uninterested in anything but the ground Hiashi paused, trying and failing to think of a better time and finding none tucked his hands into his sleeves before asking, "I wonder if perhaps you know where your sister is, today?"

It was too casually said. More so because the maids who were Hinata's usual visitors to tidy her room and who had only days ago tried to hide an Uchiha fan much like the one that stood behind him now stood in the room, pretending not to have heard this question and the express effort Lord Hiashi had put into not sounding concerned.

"I..." Hanabi tried, clearing her throat sharply. "I need tea, please." She fixed one of the maids in question with a look and with a nod she was scurrying out of sight. The other remained, straightening lines of fabric to be stitched for Hanabi's specific height in matching thread.

"I'm sure she is at the hospital, as usual." Hiashi's youngest assured him, offering a bright smile that like his question had too much joy to be honest.

"I would think that, normally." Hiashi traced a hand over the folds of a particularly stunning kimono in gray and lavender hues, one which he recalled had stopped him cold when his own wife had wandered down the staircase in it, eyes glowing lanterns in her face to mesmerize him.

"But?" Hanabi dared to ask, no longer trying to be careful she followed his frowning eyes to the long curve of silk draping from his fingers.

"Inuzuka-san and Aburame-san stopped by earlier." His words came easy, uncaring although for Hanabi the Uchiha fan seemed to grow behind him, expanding to become a gaping maw capable of swallowing not just him, but her whole.

"They told me that they had gone to the hospital first in search of your sister, but that they had not found her there and assumed she would be here. Which, does seem reasonable."

Blinking her eyes fast to wipe the unease from her face Hanabi turned to examine the cinched waist being adjusted on her body, telling herself that the breathlessness that plagued her now was due to it's stranglehold on her ribs. It was the same feeling which had been eating away at her ribcage since reading the scroll with the bad news of Grandfather's arrival just the night before. It had only been alleviated when Hinata's tear stained face had come to rest on her pillow, her arms wrapping around Hanabi with her softly whispered promises.

Swallowing a mouthful of oxygen the way she would a lump of flesh Hanabi cleared her throat.

"Certainly, reasonable. If...if you don't consider that Hinata is an introvert and that our house has, for the last while been a beehive of activity, due to the wedding, and perhaps... Perhaps she is off taking care of something for me, and I have just forgotten." Hanabi waved a hand, batting away the fly of a problem with an elegant flex of the joint. "I'm sure she will tell me where she's been when she arrives for dinner- probably before dinner, if she's not at the hospital."

It did not have to be said out loud how unlikely Hiashi thought Hinata would arrive early for dinner. Hanabi did not need him to voice either how the worry was now gnawing at his bones. The same feeling was gnawing at her own.

* * *

"Don't move, Hina..." Sasu's mouth always delivered her name like he was kissing it, and Hina watched with a a fascination that he sometimes missed, and sometimes noted, flashing her a pearly white grin that rushed blood to her cheeks without fail.

Holding still as instructed she watched him lean down, following the long length of the cord in her hands all the way past the edge of the bleached white stone she had chosen as her perch. Several feet above the waterfall's basin it allowed for some distance between their moving shadows at the water's edge and the fish below swimming cautiously around and around the worm tangled with a pebble at the end of their line.

"Did it bite?" Hina's whisper tickled his ear with her closeness and he giggled, rubbing away the sensation with his shoulder.

"Not yet. Hold the string super still. Frozen."

"Frozen." Hina agreed, perfectly content to do as instructed with him laying down on his stomach to watch the fish swirling below. In the light of the summer day his hair was a blue she had not realized. What she had realized was that she rather loved the way it was so sharp against his pale neck, and how no matter how much he tried to flatten it down it always stuck up at the back where he snuggled into his pillows while he slept.

Feeling the intent gaze upon him Sasu turned, cupping his chin in his dirty hand to wrinkle his nose at her in a half smile. "What?"

"N-nothing! Nothing!" Hina went to shake her head and only froze when his hands grabbed at her cheeks, blowing out a huff of air that rustled through her bangs.

"Don't move, silly head! You'll scare the-"

In her hands the cord gave a sudden determined lurch.

"Fish!" Her cry had him crawling to the rock edge, peering down to gawk at the dark and surprisingly large shadow that now twisted and turned in the water by the line's lead, the flip of a long silvery tail splashing with growing frustration at being tethered.

"Y..you caught one! You caught one, Hina-chan! It's huge!"

"Help, help!" Hina squeaked, shuddering at the feel of the creature in the water twisting to free itself against the cord in her hands. "Sasu! I can't pull it!"

"What?" Sasu's laugh was on the verge of hysterical, crawling back to where she now was trying to stand up without letting go of her prize. "Use your muscles!"

"I haven't got any!" Hina's retort, for whatever reason made him laugh and grabbing onto the rope with her he pulled. "It's heavy!"

"What if the stone comes out of it's mouth?" Worry nagged at the little Hyuuga, where by contrast Sasu snorted, sure of their win against such a tricky foe.

"He swallowed it, the greedy fish! It's probably stuck in his belly!"

"What if he pukes it up!"

"Better get him up here 'fore he does! Come on!" And together they stepped further and further back until with a lurch the fish flopped onto the rock they had been standing on. And good thing, for as their lunch finally landed on land, so did their shoulders smack into the tree trunk at their back, negating anymore room to pull up.

They stared in silence for a time, watching as it's silvery scales reflected the light in a rainbow of colors when it twisted and turned on the stone, clearly at a loss now that it's watery world had been torn away.

"It's practically the size of you, Hina." Sasu boasted, exaggerating by a mile as he stepped forward. "Look at it's slimy eyes."

"W..what do we do now?" Hina was only able to stare at the thing with her hands over her face, peering through her fingers as Sasu crouched a few feet from it, picking up a stick to poke at it tentatively.

"I...I guess we have to kill it." He admitted, suddenly reluctant. One poke of the stick had the fish wriggling like a worm on hot pavement and like Hina he startled back a step, skin rippling in goosebumps as he contemplated the next step that had to be taken.

"How do you...? I mean...will it just...stop moving?" Hina breathed, coming up to hide behind Sasu's shoulder more for his comfort than her curiosity.

"Big Sasuke said you bash it." Sasu thought, his little brows furrowed as he took in the situation and considered asking the adults by the fire for help. Something about the request, however, the having to admit that he had been unable to finish a job that started so well appeared to him like a surrender. So he turned, examining the forest floor around their bare feet for a stone the right size to fit his hand.

"Y..you're going to bash it?" Hina was on the verge of light headed. In her mind the fish's head would pop like a ripe cherry, spraying juice of a kind she did not want to think about on everything.

"Well... it... it's not breathing now that it's out of the water." Sasu muttered, grabbing a stone and weighing it deftly in his hand. "It's almost mean not to, right?"

Together they faced the still twitching fish at their feet and looked at each other.

"It's mean." Hina whispered, absorbing this fact without so much as contesting it as true or false since it came from Sasu's mouth.

"Yes." Sasu crouched again, lifting the stone over his head with eyes fixated on the shiny scales and the curve of the gills along the fish's head. His hand hovered, up above his shoulder, fingers adjusting again and again on it for a better grip.

Behind them the waterfall continued to roar it's pleasant song, and the dust motes glinted and shone and when Hina's heart could take the stillness no longer she took the stone from Sasu's hand, and brought it down on the fish with a resounding crack.

* * *

 _"Don't be so scared to talk about things." Temari's voice was no nonsense, her hands quick and decisive as she stacked reports and shelved them along the curving walls of the Kazekage's office. Gaara always found such a name to be humorous considering out of everyone who used it, he was the least often to be found sitting behind the desk._

 _Between himself and his siblings they often joked that Temari was only using Gaara as a decoy, for she was indeed the real Kazekage._

 _"It's not a fear of talking." Gaara had frowned from the doorway where he stood, arms crossed and brow furrowed enough to pull on the tight scar at his forehead. Rubbing at the old wound was a habit he had been trying to break and so he remained still, despite the itch._

 _"I never even get... the words... out." He tried, struggling even with her to explain himself. Temari paused her organizing long enough to shoot him a look over her shoulder._

 _"Clearly. That was painful."_

 _Hanging his head Gaara sighed. "I know."_

 _"You have friends in Konoha. If you're uncertain about something talk to them. And Shika will be there half the time. If there's anyone you can count on to at least tell you what_ not _to do its him."_

 _Gaara did not disagree with this. It was sound advice and so he waited in silence for a moment, thinking of all the uncomfortable social gatherings he was going to have to attend to see Hinata again and dreading it._

 _"Just... if you do ask the Hokage for advice, make sure it's when he's with someone else." Temari put in suddenly, as an afterthought. "Sometimes he strikes me as a little loopy."_

Loopy was not a word Gaara would have used to describe Naruto. He was boisterous sure, and extroverted in the same way that Gaara was violently introverted. But considering the life he had led, and how he had fulfilled so many of his personal goals and dreams Gaara found it hard to attribute him as _loopy_.

This was why, after leaving Hanabi to the hands of her seamstresses and maids he had found himself walking with a purpose in the direction of the Hokage tower, assembling a half dozen different sentences to be begin asking Naruto for advice.

No one barred his entry when his face appeared at the Tower doors. In fact people paused to nod their respect, a thing which always made him anxious. Did he need to slow down and say something? Should he simply nod back? But if he did, by the end of some days he might have a very sore neck and so he considered that perhaps simply walking through without much acknowledgement might be the best course of action.

If one wanted to look like an arrogant ponce, at least.

The thought, sharp as a razor that Hanabi would know exactly what to do with this conundrum occurred to him at the same time that he pictured her laugh, should he ever mention his social struggles. He could almost hear it, the way she would throw her head back, baring the bright column of her throat before assuring him that he was the strangest thing she had ever encountered. It would be said with absolutely no sting, of this he was also fairly certain. He thought rather fiercely that as a child she likely would have enjoyed having strange pets, frogs and bugs and other oddities that would make normal little girls quail.

He was like those creatures, strange and unfamiliar and to her interesting, even loveable.

And it was this, the particular thoughts and how they shifted in his head when it came to Hanabi that he needed help with. Urgent help. For although it was Hinata who he had arrived for, Hinata who he still felt a fierce protective urge for, it was Hanabi who dominated his thoughts.

And he needed it to stop. As soon as possible.

"Lord Kazekage," Snapping him out of his thoughts came Kiba's voice, forcing Gaara to look up the winding staircase he had been taking to the higher floors where Naruto's office hid.

"Inuzuka-san, Aburame-san." Gaara nodded, trying and failing to hide the prick of worry at seeing them there instead of home where they were so helpful.

"I would say it was nice to see you." Kiba continued, not stopping on the stairs as he passed him by, "but I'm afraid that would be a lie. You know we shouldn't be here."

"Kiba." Shino's reprimand was exhausted, and ignored. Stopping briefly despite Kiba and Akamaru's quick departure he sighed. "Apologies, Lord Kazekage."

"No. I would be lying if I said I didn't agree with him. I was hoping the Hokage would be able to clear up my confusion on the matter, in fact. "

"Ah." Shino's nod was slight. "I wish you luck then."

"Is it fair to assume then that should I request you sent back as soon as possible both of you would go?' Gaara called as Shino reached the bottom of the stairs.

A glance at the doors at the end of the lobby where Kiba and Akamaru had disappeared through gave Shino a moment to think before turning back to face the leader of Sand.

"Perhaps it would be pertinent for you to ask the Hokage why it is that Kiba-kun was so keen to stay in Suna this past year. For me, at least I can say that yes, I am happy to return to the work we have been doing. As for him, however..."

Puzzled by this, Gaara frowned. "Did something happen while I was gone, to sour him to Suna, Shino? Is there something I can do?"

"Ah." Shino sighed again, lifting his shoulders in a shrug. "Something did happen, of a sort. If the Hokage is unable to answer your questions, however... perhaps your fiance can?"

This was so unexpected that Gaara watched him go without a word to stop him, his thoughts a jumble as he watched the man step out into the blazing heat of the summer day.

What could Hinata have to say on the matter that he didn't already know?

More confused than even a few minutes ago Gaara took the steps two at a time. With a quick one note knock on the door he stepped inside and paused in surprise to find Shikamaru and Naruto arguing in soft fervent voices that they stopped as quickly as their eyes took him in.

"G-gaara!" Naruto called out, followed by a laugh that struck Gaara as odd. "Good morning!"

"It's nearly noon, rather." Gaara supplied, simply for something to day. "Am I interrupting?"

"Not at all." Naruto waved a hand, although Shikamaru looked like perhaps he was not so sure he agreed. "Come in. Did you come to escape the Hyuuga House and all it's preparations? It must be busy there now."

"Ah... yes." Gaara thought back to the anthill craze that had overtaken the estate. Mostly the discomfort had been in dodging bodies moving about while wandering the halls. In his own chamber there had been little difference.

"Weddings." Naruto shrugged, rifling through papers as he spoke. "Mine was a nightmare, but for the end result. And I didn't bother inviting the whole village."

"They showed up anyway." Shikamaru threw in as a reminder, sore as he was that their conversation had been cut short. "How are you, Gaara? Did you need something?"

Turning to his brother in law Gaara cleared his throat. "I just happened to run into Shino and Kiba on the way in. Neither seemed pleased to be home, oddly enough."

"Ugh." Naruto's groan was peppered with papers crinkling as he scribbled his signature on things and moved it over to where Shikamaru was now neatly gathering the documents. "They're more whiny than the academy students."

"Well, if I am honest..." Gaara began and Shikamaru sighed, knowing full well what was going to be said so that Gaara didn't bother continuing.

"I know." Naruto paused his scribbling to look at him. "I know, I'm sorry. Shika just got a message from Temari, have you had word?"

Spine suddenly straight as a metal pole Gaara shifted his eyes from Hokage to Shikamaru, any softness on his face hardening with tension. "No. What?"

"Nothing terrible- or... no casualties, anyway." Shikamaru soothed quickly. "More raids, right as Kankuro and Temari were doing rounds to make sure the borders were secured before coming this way for the wedding."

Gaara bit his lip, clasping his hands behind his back as he absorbed this information and the impatience it surged inside him to return home. "They're not coming." It was not a question.

Shikamaru shook his head in agreement. "I don't think so."

"I'm sorry, Gaara." Naruto offered, feeling like all his current decisions were unpleasant for such a beautiful summer day. "I know you were looking forward to their arrival."

"No matter." Gaara shook his head. "We do what we must. Which, I assume is why you had to recall Shino and Kiba?"

"There... is something I require them to do." Naruto attempted, his uncertainty making Shikamaru roll his eyes.

"It should not take long to send them back. From the way they were talking they are itching to return."

"Are they?" Gaara hedged cautiously. "Shino... appeared to think that Kiba might not be as keen as he was. He also suggested I ask my- I ask Hinata about it." He frowned in open confusion at them both. "Why would he say this?"

Naruto and Shikamaru stared back for a handful of blinks before turning to each other. "She didn't tell him."

"Kiba never mentioned it either?"

"Nor Shino?"

Back and forth their conversation continued, all questions with no answers until finally Gaara let out a breath that was not exactly a sigh, more of a huff. Idly, a breeze chakra laden rippled through his dark hair.

"Sorry." Shikamaru shook his head. "I thought for certain Hinata would have told you, especially if she knew they were coming. She does know they're here, doesn't she?"

"Yes, I told her so myself." Gaara finally stepped forward. "What is going on?"

"Kiba... well..." Naruto wrinkled his nose in distaste and turned to Shikamaru again. "I am not doing this."

Groaning loudly Shikamaru hung his head. "Naruto said no, to Hinata. You knew this. And very shortly after... too shortly after Kiba asked her to marry him."

Gaara stayed perfectly still, arms crossed and face impassive as he digested this information. It turned and twisted in his head, trying to fit like a puzzle piece meant for a different vignette.

"What?"

"She said no." Naruto threw up like a shield in his defense. "She said very much no."

"It was the _very much_ part which Kiba has taken issue with. To be fair, he didn't wait anywhere near long enough-" Shikamaru drawled, shaking his head at the memory of Kiba's confusion at her rejection.

"He asked her the same day." Naruto grumbled, burying his head into his arms.

"The same day as what?" Gaara's tone was impatient, annoyed with this haphazard story and the telling of it. It felt much like being exposed, although what was being exposed he was not sure.

Naruto sighed, defeated when Shikamaru waved at him to continue. Sadly he closed his eyes and explained, "The same day I asked Sakura to marry me."

And just like that, Gaara knew why the feeling of exposure now rankled through him. He should have known, after all. It was their confusion that he did _not_ which juxtaposed Hinata omitting things from him that he should know.

Hiding things, which did not want to stay hidden.

"I need to speak to her." Gaara realized out loud, stepping back as though to head out the door.

Shikamaru winced. "Ah... is... do you know where she is?"

"She will be at the hospital, but I'm sure that I can-" Gaara stopped, aware now of every look that was exchanged between his brother in law and the Hokage.

"Are you sure?" Shikamaru hesitated gently. "Did she not have other plans today?"

Gaara did not answer, realizing he did not know but perhaps they did.

* * *

Hinata's sobs had only calmed after several minutes, and although her breathing slowed Sasuke made no move to let her go, despite the convoluted mess of emotions now festering inside him.

With his back against a tree, and the softness of her hair beneath his chin he could have remained where he was for an eternity. She felt like he had imagined she would, with her face inexplicably suited to fit in the curve of his neck, her hands cool despite the summer heat combined with the blazing fire now burning eagerly at their feet.

All too soon her body shifted minutely, and like the first groans of a coming earthquake he tensed, for fear of having her retreat from him, never to come back. "Sorry." her mumbled word came out whispered and hoarse as she extradited herself from his arms and sat back with head bowed.

A little hoarse himself Sasuke cleared his throat. "What for? It's fine."

There were tear streaks on her face, and unlike before her weeping had left her pink and raw so that despite the sadness that weighed her limbs her mouth still snagged his gaze and made him angry at himself.

"...Y...you're coming to dinner tonight, yes?" The unspoken _please_ was delivered with a flick of her lashes up at him, her white gaze shooting back down to her hands before he could decipher anything else that might have been hidden there.

He would have said "Of course,". His hand had even moved to touch her cheek, to assure her soundly that he would do so for her.

Except for that a sparrow landed right behind her only a second before he could formulate the words, it's unearthly white eyes staring at him with the unnatural stillness that shot a lightning bolt of worry through his spine all the way to his toes.

There was no denying who glared at him from behind those feathers, who shamed him without a single word spoken.

"I...I had already told Hanabi that I would." Sasuke managed, snapping his eyes back to Hinata just as she tucked her hair behind her ears, head still bowed as she nodded.

"R-right. Of course. I... I'm glad you two spoke and made plans. That... that was last night?" All of sudden she was standing up, dusting herself off as though to rid herself of more than just the forest floor on her clothes.

"Hn." Sasuke hummed back, distracted by the sparrow even as it fluttered up into a tree and disappeared.

"Good." Hinata nodded again, the motion strange and stiff on her frame as she searched for something to do with her hands. "Good, I'm-"

Before she could get any more words in a straight line the sound of a _whack_ , and the following childish cry of dismay had both of them turning sharply towards the water where Hina's voice rose up in a clear familiar panic.

Together they ran, reaching the ledge on which the children had last been left fishing to find Sasu with his arms around Hina as she cried. It was a strange fun house mirror reflection of what had only moments ago been going on by the fire with their elder selves.

Shaking off the otherworldly deja vu Hinata crouched down to scoop Hina up, glancing at the fish now sitting very still only a foot away. "What happened? Are you hurt?"

"I... I couldn't..." Sasu interrupted, before Hina could even catch her breath. Hearing his voice she buried her face into Hinata's shoulder, allowing him to do the talking while she tried to wrangle the awful feeling in her stomach into submission.

"Sasu," Sasuke crouched down to study his face, surprised to see the tears that also smeared it. "What happened?"

"I couldn't kill it." He breathed out, unable to keep his eyes from returning again and again to the stone that had ended it. "I... I was going to but, I just..." He shook his head. "I was scared... that it would hurt."

Sasuke didn't need to know more.

Hina had done it.

Turning to Hinata he watched as she rubbed Hina's back, whispering wisdom she had learned that Hina had not. And he realized, as Hinata walked away with the child in her arms that there was a difference between the children that he had not noted before. Out of both of them, it was Hina who had learned earlier on to let go, to grit her teeth, to go forth.

Hina had done what Sasu could not.

* * *

The sparrow was following them. Sasuke kept tabs on it without so much as looking back, aware that from branch to branch it hopped, ever watching.

It had not taken much to soothe Hina and Sasu from their confrontation with death. A quiet talk with both of them had revealed their understanding of passing as a vague thing, something nebulous like where they went when they closed their eyes and slept.

With the crack of the stone to the fish's head the concept had taken on a concrete solidity which neither of the children appreciated but which Sasuke admitted to himself was much more kind than how he had learned of it. Hina too had finally grasped what it meant to truly say good bye to her mother and although she had listened attentively to Hinata's words off by the waterfall's edge where the spray created rainbows in the bright light it was Sasuke who she sought after.

They ate the fish with handfuls of berries on leafy plates and popped balls of cold sticky rice into their mouths with their fingers from the pack Sasuke had hauled, a little more subdued than usual but content enough.

And this would have been fine, perfect in fact but for the ever present stare of the bird sitting immobile in the tree branches.

Sitting on Sasuke's back with her arms around his neck and her legs looped around his arms Hina pressed her hot cheek to his equally hot nape and closed her eyes in exhaustion.

"How much longer?" Sasu dared, following along in Sasuke's shadow for the coolness it afforded and less because he wanted to stay close.

"Not much." Hinata soothed, rummaging about in her bag for a water bottle. "Have some water though, Sasu. You are likely dehydrated."

Pausing so Hina could also slip from his back for a sip of water Sasuke searched the trees, finding the dark shadow with brilliant pearls for eyes with only a cursory glance.

"We must have taken a bit of a weird turn off." Hinata admitted, examining the landscape of blackberry bushes and saplings that was the forest edge with no clear path to be found through the painful thorns. "I feel like we're going to come out further from the house than we started."

"We are," Sasuke nodded. "We-" He stopped, stilling the same moment Hinata did to listen to the whisper of a tired wind through the grass and steps on the other side of the blackberry bushes getting closer.

"Three." Hinata whispered, slapping a hand over HIna's mouth to keep her from speaking. At her side Sasuke too crouched low, dragging Sasu down so that only the very top of his hair and his eyes peeked over the long grass.

"Two." Sasuke corrected. "One quadruped, two humanoid."

Hinata turned wide eyes to him slowly, mouth puckered with panic. "Kiba and Shino."

"Sasu," Sasuke breathed into the youngster's ear. "You know what to do."

With a nod, and eyes still tinged with fear Sasu grabbed Hina's hand, ripping with her back into the woods they had just stepped out of at the full speed their little legs could carry them. Quick as she could Hinata removed her pack, rummaging about inside for a yukata, or something to hide the stained and sweaty training gear she had been wearing through the day.

"What are we going to say?" Sasuke hissed, handing her the fabric as she tugged her shirt over her head. To his immense relief she was wearing an undershirt to save him from becoming a completely mute idiot, although he still felt his face heat to burning enough to turn away.

"Not sure... Wedding... plans?" Hinata tried. It had not occurred to her that her friends would track her. She was fairly certain that Kiba was still loathe to speak to her considering her tearful and rather hysterical rejection. None of the letters she had sent after their departure to Suna despite her apologies had been returned. Only Shino wrote, and then briefly to try to make amends as best he could.

Not that it mattered. After months of trying Hinata had gone from apologetic to hurt, and finally angry. And anger didn't suit her. Instead she tucked it aside and let it decay to dust.

Now all she felt was worry.

"What kind of wedding planning has to happen in the woods?" Sasuke whispered, and Hinata blinked at him before letting out a tense breath. "I...I...honeymoon plans?"

It was such a ridiculous thing to say, so extremely out of place that Sasuke didn't know whether to scowl or laugh but before either of them could make a sound Hinata slapped a hand over both their mouths, cutting off the mirth before it began.

"Are you sure, Akamaru?" Kiba's voice reached them finally. "What the hell would she be doing all the way out here?"

"Element of surprise." Hinata whispered, mostly to herself although Sasuke heard as she straightened her hair with a flutter of her fingers and then called out. "Kiba?"

There was a pause as all the feet on the other side of the bracken stopped and then Shino, rather than Kiba called out.

"Hinata-chan?"

Uncaring of the thorns, too large to be rebuffed Akamaru's sudden grumbling and growling shook the eleven foot hedge between them and in no time at all his paws and jaws could be seen through the ripped mess he was making.

"Akamaru!" The pleasure in her voice had no lie in it, earning a raised brow from Sasuke standing by her side. "Careful! Shino, he's going to hurt himself."

"He's a little excited." Shino's apologetic voice called. "I would step back."

"Akamaru. Enough." Kiba's order was short and clipped, earning a soft whine from the giant dog although he stumbled back in due course and left a mess of broken branches and spiky bush to pick through. As if it were no bother Hinata eagerly started through, skipping over some hazardous tangles until she burst onto the road, grabbing Shino around the neck in a hug that sent him stumbling back a step.

"Shino!"

"Ah! Hi!" A laugh, quietly offered accompanied his gentle squeeze and Hinata stepped back to look at him, the grin on her face blinding. "You have freckles." She examined him closely. "I missed you!"

Tail down, and ears flat Akamaru nudged at her elbow, making her grin turn into a giggle as she rubbed his head. At the other end his tail took off in a frenzy, whipping through the air as it wagged his pleasure.

"Akamaru. What a good dog. Have you been good? Did you keep them safe? Of course you did."

Finally, she lifted her eyes to the young man standing on Akamaru's other side, no smile and face tense as he studied her back. Giving Akamaru one last pat Hinata took the two steps to stand in front of him, brows gathered together beneath her bangs.

"Kiba-kun."

"Look," he began, looking about as out of breath as if he had just run a mile, "I wouldn't have come, if it weren't for that damned Naruto ordering me about. I know you don't want to see me, but-" He stopped, startled with her arms around his neck squeezing tight.

"Who said I didn't? Why would I not want to see one of my best friends?"

"Oh." Kiba replied, allowing despite his hesitation for his arms to wrap around her. "Oh. Shino...was right."

"Of course I was." Shino grumbled mildly. "When am I not?"

Before anyone could affirm Shino's eternal wisdom however Akamaru gave a growl of displeasure aimed at the blackberry bushes where Sasuke stood, arms crossed as he examined the touching scene with a neutral bored expression on his face Hinata had not seen there for some time.

Kiba made a face as though he had just smelled something foul. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh! Uh... Sasuke and I were...um..." Hinata tried, floundering at the uninviting glare Sasuke fixed on Akamaru before turning to Kiba, still with his arm around Hinata's waist.

"Wedding plans." Sasuke supplied when Hinata's sentence made it no further. "It's a couple of days away, in case you didn't know."

"I know." Kiba frowned slightly. Turning to Hinata he added, "How unfortunate you're going to be related to this thing."

"Kiba." Shino and Hinata both snapped although Sasuke smirked pointed as a freshly sharpened blade.

"I have to run. They can see you back home safely, I assume?" He turned to Hinata who nodded, eyes flickering to the trees where their secrets hid, tired and probably hungry. The less time they spent in the proximity of two highly skilled trackers the better.

"I'll see you at dinner then," He paused at her side and with Akamaru's low growl and Kiba's simmering glare on him at once he did not bother resisting to reach out, planting a kiss on her cheek that he tagged with a soft, "Sister."

Frozen in place but for the hand that slapped at her own cheek Hinata stared at nothing, pressing on the minute touch of his mouth on her face hard with her fingers while Kiba recoiled, mouth agape.

"What the hell?"

"Hm." Shino offered when Sasuke waved over his head without looking back, disappearing around the bend in a handful of steps. "I didn't know Uchihas were affectionate."

"They're not, he's just being annoying." Kiba wrinkled his nose, turning back to Hinata to find her beet red and still as a statue. "Oi. What's the matter? It can't be a big deal. I've seen _Shino_ kiss you."

"That was an emergency." Shino rolled his eyes as they started together back down the road. "She was drowning, Kiba."

"Whatever." Kiba continued, determined. "There was mouth to mouth contact.'

A laugh, sorely missed and saved only for the company of those who knew her small and broken escaped her then, along with a handful of tears.

"Oh don't." Kiba's voice wavered a moment at the sight of her wiping at her eyes ineffectually. "Please don't cry."

"Why?" Hinata smiled, glad to see that whatever stone hard look he had been trying to keep on his face at the sight of her had melted away like snow under a bright sun. "Are you going to cry too?"

"Maybe." Kiba admitted, while behind him Shino snorted softly.

"He means, yes."

* * *

They were quiet, both of them and he had thought that this was a result of the sun, of the concepts so hard to grasp that they had learned at the death of the fish by the waterfall's edge.

Hina curled on the coolness of the couch the moment they entered the house, releasing some pent up emotion in a sigh as she breathed out. With eyes closed it was only moments before she was sleeping.

Sasuke didn't bother nagging at Sasu for a bath, too anxious as he was to head to the Hyuuga House as quickly as possible. Although the fact Naruto had sent Kiba and Shino looking for Hinata had escaped her notice it had snagged in his mind like a splinter.

"You are old enough to make yourself a sandwich for dinner." He explained when Sasu followed him up the stairs to his bedroom where he gathered clean clothing for a formal dinner onto his bed. "Hina can help you with it if she wakes up."

Sasu did not reply, his little face smudged with dirt and streaked with sweat from a day too hot to be ignored. Silent, he climbed onto the bed's edge and watched with hands in his lap as Sasuke organized himself even if inside his mind there were too many complicated things to do the same.

"Sasu." Sasuke finally stopped, pulling the curtains across his window so that the sun was subdued to an orange square half on the floor and half on his white sheets and blankets. "Did you hear me?"

The boy chewed for a moment on his cheek, drawing a breath before lifting his twin eyes to those of his elder self.

"I saw...I saw you kiss her."

If there had been anything he had been expecting coming from a little boy's mouth this was not it. Still now, with one foot in the bathroom and one in his bedroom he waited, hoping there would be more to the sentence.

Sasu did not comply, instead holding him captive in the dark calm of his gaze until Sasuke swallowed and closed the bathroom door to signal he had his attention.

"You mean, Hinata?"

"Yes."

Breathing in deep Sasuke nodded. "It was... just a goodbye."

The calm on Sasu's face cracked like thin ice, his mouth pressing into a line as he stared him down. "Liar."

The accusation was all the more irritating because of the truth behind it. Sasuke glared, annoyed not just with himself but with the fact that he was angry at a child. A child who was right no less.

"Stop it. Hinata kisses you and Hina good bye all the time."

"You stare at her." Sasu scowled finally, his voice growing dark despite the polite way he sat with hands folded in his lap. "I see you staring at her all the time."

"I don't have time for this." Sasuke stepped back, suddenly unwilling to get closer to the unnaturally quiet child which now reminded him so much of the sparrow that had been following him from tree to tree through the entire day, white eyes so intent upon him there had been no mistaking the intelligence within.

"You!" Sasu finally caved, slipping off the bed with fists raised. "You like her just say it!"

"Shut up." Sasuke snapped, barging into his bathroom to turn the water on as hot as it would go. The steam hissed in a cloud in seconds and yet Sasu continued to rage behind him.

"I hate you! I hate you! It's your fault we're alone! It's your fault she leaves every day!"

The ringing in his ears was ridiculous. Sasuke blinked hard as he rummaged in the cupboard beneath the sink for a towel. His heart raced and he stared when as his hands pressed the cupboard doors shut as they shook.

"Stop ignoring me!"

Sasuke turned finally to the little body in the door frame, to the tears that were running unchecked down his small face and waited.

"Why...why is it like this?" Sasu's voice wobbled despite the tight way his limbs held together, shoulders nearly to his ears and fists clenched.

"Why what?" Sasuke bit out, unnerved by how much he loathed to hear what was being asked of him. "Why what?"

Familiar as it was, he still winced to hear the characteristic "Tch!" with which Sasu replied, eyes daggers.

"I saw you kiss her. I saw you."

"No. Sasu, it's not-"

"You love her." The statement was made with such force Sasuke could only breathe in the shower steam. For how does one lie when the truth is said so plainly. Trembling, Sasu wiped ineffectually at his face with his sleeve.

"Why are we alone if you love her?" With a sniff he stood tall once more, ready to extract the truth from him by force if necessary. "What did you do?"

What indeed. Sasuke let himself slide from a crouch to lean his back against the shower wall, pressing a hand to his face as he thought.

The list was endless and frayed from the many times he had inspected it within his mind, adding more sins for which to atone for every passing year. The more he learned about himself, the more he found that shamed hi and over time he had begun to realize he would forget things and although they would no longer hinder him they would remain in the world, negative footprints left behind by the last pure blooded Uchiha.

Sasu raised his chin at his extended silence, drawing a breath as if to speak again but Sasuke cut him off, sighing deeply as he spoke. "What have I done? Sasu... I have done... a lot of foolish things. Some even terrible things. You are right." He nodded slowly, finally lifting his eyes to those of the child who so keenly deserved answers. "It's my fault."

Chin trembling, and with the tears less angry and more mournful Sasu shook his head slowly, burying his face into his hands before sliding to the floor himself.

"I...I don't want to become you."

Sasuke didn't know his heart could break in so many different ways but he learned it all the same.

"It's okay, Sasu. It's okay... I don't want you to become me either."

* * *

There must have been a fire in his belly, to rush him through the night and most of the day past the winding roads of Konoha's highways. It must have been a truly furious flame that made him endure the rocking chaos of the palanquin sway for endless hours on his ancient bones.

Lord Hiashi grit his teeth and glared into the sunlight with the kind of determination he had made use of when facing a kunai to the throat. The sake from last night had done lasting damage to his head even though he had sobered rapidly after the news of his grandfather's imminent arrival. He was surprised to have a hang over, if he was honest. Hinata was clever with herbs and poultices and he had expected that she offer something to soothe the dehydration that would hinder him in the morrow.

But waking to the news of the approaching Hyuuga caravan of guests and his eldest daughter once more missing from the house had proved she had had other things in mind besides his excessive drinking.

This time at least he could not find it in himself to be bothered by her distractedness. Nightmares had a way of taking up much of a person's concentration.

"Lord Hiashi." Beside him a maid lowered herself to a bow on the engawa floor, half in the cool shade of the house's cover half in the gold of the sun's growing touch. "We have received news that the Grandelder and his caravan have entered the village and will be here shortly. Shall I begin gathering the servants to escort guests to their rooms?"

Hiashi looked straight ahead as he drew a breath, sucking in the sweetness of the garden bed and the blooms that had opened to reach for the summer sun after the coolness of night. A runner had already been dispatched for his daughters, although he rather hoped they were hard to find. If there was one thing he wanted for them now, in the more mature years of his parenthood, it was a reduced amount of time in the presence of their terrors.

"Gather the household." Hiashi murmured finally in consent. "Everything must go smoothly. You know what to do."

"Of course, my Lord." Still bowed the maid began to rise. "We will do all that is required."

Her rise and movement to the door should had dropped away from his mind, but such was the tangled disaster of his thoughts that she remained there, among all the other troubles that were occupying him and so as she began to slide the door closed to the dining room he turned, fixing her with pale Hyuuga eyes that left no room for argument.

"Nothing can go wrong. Do you understand? Nothing. There must be no impropriety, no cause for reprimand, no embarrassments. Is that clear?"

The woman was not so new as to not understand why the Lord Hiashi said this, having served in his house long enough to watch the Lady Hinata grow from child, to blooming adolescent and now to elegant young lady. Long enough to feel a prick of worry at the many men's things she had noted in the elder Hyuuga daughter's bedroom in the last few weeks. Things which, accompanied by what she had heard in the fitting room in the early afternoon now weighed so heavy on her mind.

The words clogged her throat, uncertain of their reception should she dare to give them voice. But to have the suspicion come out with the Lord Grandelder here, and Lord Hiashi unaware of the danger almost seemed a bigger treachery.

Frowning openly now Hiashi turned fully, noting the struggle on her face the way one notes a change in the river current. "What is it?"

And still, the words hovered unspoken.

* * *

 ** _*shy wave from behind a mountain of plot lines* 3_**

 ** _much love,  
inky_**


	23. Chapter 23

It had been too long since she had taken a walk with her two closest friends at her side, and like coming up for air despite the wonders of the ocean depths it ached and filled her with pleasure at once.

On the dirt path their shadows danced ahead of them, familiar and refreshing at once. It would have been a mistake, Hinata realized, to not speak to them before this was all over.

"Hinata," Kiba's voice softened at the sight of the Hyuuga walls beginning to stretch ahead on the right side of the road. Eyes focused on the patterns of the red hued Japanese maple that draped over the walls in languid streams he muttered, "I... have some apologizing to do."

His steps slowed, and although Shino paused he also shrugged gently at Hinata's startled expression, pressing her into a quick hug before waving goodbye without another word.

"Kiba-kun, you don't have to-" Hinata began and stopped at the look he gave her, all hard jaw and eyes too shiny to not have tears in them. Allowing herself a breath she let her shoulders slump, and clenched her hands hard in front of her. "Okay."

"I...well I was not thinking, obviously." He frowned, unable to hold her gaze for long before looking down at his feet. "And...don't get me wrong." He grit his teeth and looked at her again. "I do- or did... I loved you, still love you... it's just changed. I wasn't just doing it out of pity."

Slowly Hinata's gaze widened at this revelation which, up until a moment ago she would not have believed but for the fact he was speaking so earnestly.

"It was so infuriating to me that you thought I would come to you because I felt sorry for you. But, Shino has talked my ear off about it, and it makes sense you would think that considering when I chose to tell you. You were already upset..." Kiba dragged in a breath that expanded his chest and letting it out loudly he smiled, a smile so genuine and relieved it made Hinata move forward a step.

"Anyway, anything that Shino chooses to talk about incessantly must be important and rightl, no?"

Hinata's laugh was a little soggy, but honest as she rubbed her lashes dry. "I think that's a safe assumption."

"I am sorry though." Kiba's smile remained true, if a little sad even as he pressed a hand to her cheek. "I should have been here sooner. You look tired." His eyes roved over her face for a moment longer before detecting more. "And sad."

Swallowing thickly Hinata forced a smile, taking his hand to hold between hers. "This wedding...it has been a trial, I will not lie."

"Hm." Kiba hummed, sharp eyes searching her face some more. The sound of a half truth had made his ears prick up and yet he could not find the source when Hinata looked him straight on. "Well, it will be over soon enough. Two more days?"

"The celebrations start tomorrow. The village will be in a state come sundown." Hinata nodded, starting the slow walk towards home once more to avoid looking him in the eye longer than she had to. "The wedding is the next day, but after is many days of celebration. They..." She swallowed again, surprised by the sudden knot that fit in her throat like a fist to her trachea. "...they will be leaving for their honeymoon several days after."

A cold shudder popped goosebumps along her arms and neck at the thought, forcing her hands to rub the unpleasant sensation away with sharp movements. She would not have thought a few days ago that disappearing would appeal even a small amount, and yet now...

Now that a solution had presented itself before her she could hardly fathom how she was going to live through the wedding, and do more than lay in bed weeping the days that followed after.

When she turned, with the Hyuuga gates in sight and her face pale despite the summer heat she found Kiba's eyes wide, searching her again with a surprise that made her stomach drop away unpleasantly.

"What...what were you and that Uchiha doing again, today?"

Hinata stilled, grasping at all the different methods she had been taught to convince a target on a mission that she was innocent. Unsure if any of the skills she had learned at Kiba's side would work she laced her arms behind her, cocking her head as she blinked her eyes repeatedly for a moment as if confused.

"What? We were scouting for some flowers Hanabi had been talking about. For decoration." She waited, as if expecting him to elaborate on the question and when he replied with puzzled silence she added. "Why do you ask?"

The kiss played in Kiba's mind again, the easy and relaxed way that Sasuke's arm had slid across her hips, the press of his mouth to her cheek, the stunned wide eyed expression that had overtaken her.

Stubbornly, a voice inside him scolded the thought. He had been wrong about Hinata before, had misunderstood and misjudged her heart so badly it had torn them violently apart and so he shrugged, letting out a weak laugh that didn't reach his eyes.

"No, nothing. I was just wondering..." Sheepishly he rubbed at the back of his head and then sighed to see her smiling. "We're okay then?"

The caress of his fingers against her cheek had reminded her again of how familiar he was, despite his roughness. How, even when he howled with laughter at something she would not have found particularly funny she still caught herself giggling just to see his joy.

Hinata had missed him, with the subdued clenched fist way in which she felt everything of late. And so she hugged him tight to let him know it was okay.

She could have stayed there, in his arms where things were safe and familiar for much longer than the breath she was allowed. But when her eyes opened over his shoulder she knew that was not an option.

Through the honey hues of sunlight, dressed in the usual immaculate whites and grays of the Hyuuga House a string of people walked. Were it not for their silence, and the lack of music and laughter they would have been a parade. Still, Hinata knew better. There in the midst of all her relatives the palanquin swayed on the shoulders of young men. Inside there was no doubt of who resided, and inside Hinata in turn her dismay expanded like water turned to ice in winter.

"Who is that?" Kiba had whispered, turning to look at the feel of her tensing so her chakra sparkled in a haze through the air without her knowing.

"Grandfather... and most of that side of the family." Hinata gripped Kiba's hand tight for just one more soothing moment before turning to look at him, face as placid as the moments before diving into the middle of a fight.

"I have to go."

"'Course." Kiba nodded, stepping back to follow after Shino who had left them alone for a much needed moment of privacy. "I will see you tomorrow."

Hinata didn't agree, unsure of what the coming hours let alone days would bring. Before anyone in the coming party could see her however she dove through the estate gates, running like no lady of a noble house should ever be seen doing.

Yukata skirt in her hands to ease her movements she burst though the main doors and froze at the sight before her.

The receiving hall, made of smooth honey wood and white plaster had been scrubbed to shining. Only the elegant orchids Hanabi had ordered from Ino dared to curl in artful lines, even the servants stood in mathematical rows at the sides with their hands folded neatly and faces tense.

Those not lined up and ready to receive the Hyuuga family were rushing past her and through into the many halls beyond, carrying trays of tea, sweets and jugs of water clinking with ice to where the dining room had surely been turned into the banquet hall.

Someone asked her if she needed any help, but HInata could not say who. Not as she kicked her shoes off, and handed them over without a word, rushing down the hall like a demon was at her tail because in a way one was.

She was sweaty, covered in dirt and although she had scrubbed herself and her hands after gutting the fish the children had caught she was certain she still smelled questionable. There was no way appearing before Grandfather in such a state would be acceptable and yet to have him wait could easily be a calamity also.

Turning a corner as she came up onto the staircase landing Hinata gasped, smashing hard into Hanabi who stumbled backwards and straightened with a huff, adjusting the sleeves of the many layered kimono that now draped over her small frame.

Hinata stared, breathless and disheveled for a moment before gasping. "You look incredible, Hanabi."

Ignoring the honest assessment Hanabi let out a breath of relief of her own. "You're here. I wasn't sure the runners would find you."

"Runners?" Hinata shook her head. "I never met anyone but Kiba and Shino on the road-"

"It doesn't matter. There's no time." Hanabi grasped her shoulders, giving her a once over that did nothing for HInata's self esteem. "You need to get changed, bathed even. He is already going to be in a foul mood with the weather the way it is. Is it evil that I am hopeful he died on the way from heatstroke?"

Hinata's mouth twisted into something questionable though she didn't say either way.

"Go. Hopefully I will be enough of a distraction for a bit." Without thinking Hanabi sighed, "I wish Gaara were here."

"He's not?" Hinata blinked, looking behind her as though expecting to find him in her shadow.

"No, he left a little before noon, but he said he would return as soon as possible. Hurry up." Turning her around to push towards her bedroom Hanabi shook her head at her older sister as she ran.

Hanabi sighed, gritting her teeth to head down the stairs where she could already hear the silence overtaking the buzz that was the servants usually communicating with each other. A clear signal that the aura of her grandfather was already bleeding into the house.

"I can do this. This is fine." Dragging in a lungful of air she straightened the sleeves of her kimono once more, checking that her earrings were still where they belonged before taking two steps down the staircase Hinata had just run up a moment before.

She had barely moved when Gaara appeared at the first landing, blinking up at her with green eyes quiet, even if his mouth perked up into a smile.

"Well, look at you."

"Does the make up hide the terror?" Hanabi smiled sarcastically, reigning herself back from simply throwing her arms around him. "I think he's here."

"Yes... I will admit I jumped the wall when I saw the tail end of a very long procession of people entering through the gate." Gaara shook his head, extending a hand out to her as she reached him on the landing. "Please don't tell your father."

"Believe me, I doubt it would even register if I did right now." Hanabi paused as he arranged her arm through his and drew another shaky breath before allowing herself to speak.

"I'm really glad you're here."

Gaara smiled, and like her own smile the action of his lips turning up did little to ease the worry in his eyes. "Your sister asked me to take care of you before she... when she left this morning."

"Oh." Hanabi's sigh was too honest in it's relief for him not to notice, her grip on his arm tightening. "Did... did she happen to tell you where she went?"

Gently the Kazekage closed his eyes and turned her with him back towards the receiving hall.

"Unfortunately, I am realizing that there are many things your sister has failed to tell me, of late."

Startled by the quietness in his voice Hanabi focused on walking down the staircase without tripping on her robes. Meanwhile her mind whirred as it deciphered the clench of his jaw and the tightness of his mouth.

"Gaara..." Frowning openly, Hanabi stopped; aware that he was focused not on her but on the servants rushing to fling the double doors usually not used together open to the brightness of the late afternoon light at the house's front.

"...are you angry at Hinata?"

This was enough to get his attention back to her, his unwillingness to lie clearly wrestling with his desire to be always agreeable.

"I don't know," He offered finally, unhappy with his answer as he was by the question. "I don't know."

"Hanabi." Hiashi's voice cut through all else, it's strained sharpness making them both snap to attention. He stood waiting impatiently down the hall. "Now, please."

Together the two joined Hiashi's side, surrounded as they were by their ever growing staff. They faced the palanquin being lowered in the garden courtyard, the curtains roughly thrown aside by a wrinkled and gnarled hand.

"Your sister?" Hiashi asked softly with eyes trained on the ancient creature stepping out into the light before him.

"I just saw her. She is upstairs getting dressed." Hanabi replied, trying and failing to ignore the way air was becoming thinner and thinner as the old man straightened to standing. She realized again how she had not imagined it as a child. He really had been a towering figure.

"She's here?" Gaara turned to Hanabi, just in time to see her cheeks pale beneath the blush dusted upon them and instinctively his hand gripped hers tightly.

"Well," Hiashi muttered on the other side of his daughter, just as the shadow of Grandfather fell across their entrance floor. "Welcome to the family, Kazekage-sama."

And together all three of them bowed.

* * *

The fox appeared like a ribbon of blood in water, his body taking shape along the everglow of the Lady Ama's favorite abode in the heavens.

Around her clouds split to pinks and reds and orange hues, but at the centre where she herself stood looking out to the human world there was only the crimson heat of molten stone beneath the ever cracking skin of black lava.

The fox stood still for a long moment, tail swishing back and forth before settling it comfortably at his own feet. In the quiet he could take in the way the clouds cried for mercy as the scorch of the goddess's anger broiled on high, sending out ribbons of power like solar flares in elegant tendrils in all directions.

To get any closer would be a mistake and he had been in service to his mistress for too long for such foolishness. Instead the fox waited until the heat reduced to the mere hot breath of a roaring fire and the goddess finally turned.

She was beautiful angry as she was kind. Her skin glowed, like petals pressed against a lantern to show the deity blood filled veins that traced across her flesh. Somewhere inside her fury whorled endlessly, making her eyes burst to glow as embers and her red mouth drip with molten steel.

This was a goddess as the fox had rarely seen her, and so the creature hunched low, ears flattening as he took in the sun wroth in anger.

"Have you found him?" Her voice echoed, rough as the vomiting hiss of a volcano's roar and threaded through with the beauty of delicate bird song. "Is he meddling with Tsuku even now?"

The fox shook his head, and then straightened for there was no space for fear here. To not deliver his news would not be worse than staying silent. "Lord Tsuku remains as planned in the lands of Suna, my Lady Ama. A new raid has been started to keep him occupied. I have yet to track the Hyuuga Spirit, however." He quailed. "Nor the Uchiha."

Ama remained still, but for the ever twisting tendrils of her golden hair, her glowing eyes sparking with droplets of diamond that might have been tears both petulant and holy in nature.

"I am certain it is Susa who has hidden them from me, the coward."

Bad mouthing a god was not something the fox had any interest in doing, and so he remained silent, wary of the goddess and her eyes ever burning on him although she had long ago ceased to pay his presence any attention. Her thoughts were too important to distract from, for she had much at stake.

The peace and prosperity which had ruled for years had been hard won. She had had to placate her youngest brother for sacrificing one of his own favorites for the sake of her plan. Tsuku had always been much more attached to his toys than herself, and although in the end the game had come out with her on top nothing in eternity was to be counted on forever- except that things were forever changing.

Susa saw to that.

This bet had appeared such a definitive way to assure her power continued to rule through for years to come. Already engaged, lonely and broken the Uchiha and Hyuuga children had appeared easy enough to convince into loving.

And yet.

"What would the Lady Ama desire of me now?" The fox asked, daring to break the concentration on the goddess's face for the sake of a reason to get out of her presence.

"Find those spirits." Turning around she faced the coming dusk with a wild flail of her hand, roaring her frustration as the sky turned steadily crimson. "Find them and bring them to me."

The fox disappeared the same way he had come, before the goddess thought to use his own blood to paint the heavens.

* * *

The warmth of the day, the stickiness of being out on a long hike through the sun's highest point had chilled on her skin at the sight of the palanquin.

Shivering now, Hinata rushed through her bedroom towards the bath, thankful that the lone maid who had seen her running into her room had had the presence of mind to ask her if she needed help dressing.

She would do the work of taking a fitted kimono from the endless stacks in the closet. She would arrange it for Hinata to simply walk in and have it draped upon her. It would have to be a simple thing to be put on her by only one maid and quickly, but no matter. Hinata never felt quite right wearing the more elaborate costumes in the Hyuuga storeholds. They were, in her mind her mother's and more recently Hanabi's things. To her they felt borrowed.

Stepping back out of the shower, scrubbed a violent pink and still shuddering Hinata threw her arms through a simple white yukata for the trek down the hall towards the dressing room. Almost out the door she froze at the sound of something jingling the lock at her window.

Terror ripped through her at the possibility that Sasuke would be there on her balcony as he sometimes was. With her hair a soggy mess down her back and her hand pressed hard once more to the place where he had so casually kissed on her cheek she turned, stiff at the shoulders only to let out a sigh.

It was only a bird.

Framed against the naked blue of the cloudless summer sky the dark sparrow extended it's neck towards the window's lock, trying and failing only barely to shove it's tiny beak between the two panes to shove the lock up and open.

It blinked it's ivory eye at her watching and without thinking Hinata stepped forward and undid the latch.

The bird fluttered instantly forward, coming at her so fast Hinata flung her hands up and caught it on instinct, choking down the cry that almost left her throat until the feathery thing popped like a mistreated pillow into a cloud of sparkles.

The squeak that escaped her was cut off by her hand coming over her mouth as Neji's shape took form in the dew drops, his face stern.

"Neji-nii!"

"Hime, I don't have much time."

"Where have you been?" Hinata disregarded his warning, as always stepping forward as though to touch him only to remember herself at the last moment with a wounded expression she could not hide.

"Whatever you may be thinking about that Uchiha." Neji plowed on, determined to get through what he needed to say before one of the gods began to pay attention to him once more. "You must remember what it will cost, should you choose him."

Hinata stepped back as though struck, blinking at him as though he were too bright. "What...what are you-?"

"Don't lie. I don't have time for lies, just tell me... Tell me that you will remember who you are." Neji moved towards her, hands beseeching and Hinata swallowed hard, failing completely to control the flood of tears that rushed her.

"Who is that, then Neji-nii? I... I hardly know. And you left me, always vanishing as I approached." The accusation left her mouth before she had even thought it through and Neji winced, closing his eyes tiredly. "I could have used your guidance. I could have-"

"I have been trying to find another way, Hime," He sighed, raising his mournful face towards her once more. "It has not been...a cheap gamble." He motioned to the feathers on the ground left from his transformation. "It could have been worse, but I will admit... I do not want to face eternity as a bird."

Anger, like a strike of lightning with no storm came upon her in a tidal flood.

"T..the gods did this?"

"It could have been worse," Neji repeated, watching as her body shook and her tears turned furious. "Don't focus on that. I came here to tell you-"

"To do my duty." Hinata lifted her chin, wiping at her cheeks hard to push the emotions away. "I understand."

Of all the moments past, it was this one second in which Neji resented his formlessness the most. The desire to hold her tear stained face tearing through him so the wavering light that was his soul twisted and turned like shadows chased by candles.

"I know how hard it is to be a Hyuuga...and to be an older sibling." Despite the impossibility he reached forward, wishing desperately to smooth away the sadness on her lashes. "But that is what we are, Hinata."

"I will never not regret that you had to bear such a burden for me." Hinata shook her head, stepping back for fear the pain of not feeling his touch when she so needed it would unspool her completely.

"Had to?" Neji smiled, even though he could feel already the pull of the chain Lord Susa had put upon his soul tugging hard on him again. "I didn't _have_ to, Hinata. I love you and that is what we do for those we love, we choose them, again and again."

The glitter of his shape dissolved to golden dust back out the window, leaving Hinata with her arms wrapped around herself and her cheeks soaked. Inside her head the unspoken second half of his statement rattled through her brain. "We choose them, again and again...even if it kills us."

It was both a relief and an unfairness when as she closed the window once more a sparrow took off from the garden's tree branches, it's pearl colored eyes stark against the brown feathered prison of it's soul.

It was a testament to how untethered the Hyuuga eldest felt that she missed the fox sitting still as a statue along the curve of her bathroom window sill, only to leap down and out of sight in search of his mistress goddess when Hinata finally retreated back inside.

* * *

"Hiashi, it would appear you have managed to maintain our Hyuuga legacy with some semblance of honor."

The words came gruff from an ancient throat but nothing about the statement was feeble. Spoken with pronunciation that left no words to a guess the Lord Grandelder paused at the threshold and surveyed the three bowed shapes before him in turn.

Long ago the Byakugan veins had jumped to permanent attention along his wizened face, and although all Hyuuga faced whe world with the pale gaze they were renowned for, his and his alone was framed by the irritated red of a suspicious and anxious mind unable to easily find rest in the nights.

"I take my responsibilities seriously." Hiashi replied, not exactly politely. Almost as an after thought he added, "Welcome home, Grandfather."

Even as Hanabi and Gaara straightened their spines to look at the old man they knew this was going to be a long and exhausting battle, judging by the slow and unimpressed smile that rose to the thin wrinkled mouth before them. "Welcome indeed."

A flinch, minute though it was betrayed Hanabi's porcelain face and Grandelder turned his ever seeing eye to her like a cat on a mouse tail. "Ah, the younger." He moved then, and the tap, tap, tap of the cane upon the hardwood floor followed his every step. The sound, so recurrent in her nightmares fought with the rhythm of her heart pounding in her ears and Hanabi fidgeted, surprised by her inability to raise the eyes so often described around the village as fierce.

"All that effort and time poured into an investment, only to be sorely disappointed."

Beside Hanabi Gaara felt his mouth part, words rising in his mind in a wave not unlike the sand that responded to his call at home only to find himself cut off not by Hanabi herself, but Hiashi.

"I will have you remember that my daughter is proficient in all the arts she has ever attempted to learn and that for the Hyuuga Household she is not just an investment...She is the goal."

Hanabi remained still where she stood, a figurine too beautiful and immobile to seem like a goal to achieve, and yet when Grandelder let out something dry and hacking that might have been a cackling laugh her eyes lifted.

The white was unlike that of the moon, or the feathers of a dove's soft underwing. No, on Hanabi's face the razor sharp points of a snow covered mountaintop were the only thing that matched her gaze, and the sheer furious tenacity that hovered there crouched and ready to spring.

Grandelder's smile did not waver, but broadened as he held the threatening stare of the beautiful doll whose teeth he didn't doubt were razor sharp.

"I always knew you would be glorious in your monstrosity, if you were allowed." He turned before she could so much as blink, snapping his fingers with a tap of his cane hard on the floor between his feet to signal for the servants to move. "Gather our luggage. I need tea, and cool place to sit immediately."

As if they were no longer of interest Grandelder moved into the house like he owned it because in a way he did. Uncertainly, Hanabi remained where she was focusing on breathing as her lungs fought for space with the expanding and ever aching thing that was her heart.

"Hanabi," Gaara began, his voice a whisper that never got further.

"We must go." Hiashi was firm, unrelenting as he took Hanabi's arm and draped it across his own. "Come, Daughter. I have you now."

Left with no other choice but to follow, Gaara trailed at their heels, glancing back only briefly to see if perhaps Hinata was coming down the hall. No one but the servants and other relatives were to be seen however. The commotion of travel trunks and dozens of families being escorted to their quarters filling the room with a buzz like a beehive.

The only other person Gaara looked for was the Uchiha who should have been standing next to Hanabi, holding her hand in his place. But like always, he found nothing.

* * *

Waking with the night sky lit up through the window was not what Hina expected. Beneath her the couch stuck to her hot skin, and as she moved the dry coarseness of her skin grated where her sweat had dried before she fell asleep.

The house was silent. There was no laughter from the kitchen, no dishes being moved and from upstairs no steps echoed, no bath ran.

Lights were left on in the hall, sending shadows skittering long across the white tile of Uchiha-san's entryway and when she pushed herself to sitting she could see the gaping black of his bedroom door open and dark.

Perhaps the dream had ended. She had figured it would eventually. It had lasted much longer than any other dream she had ever heard of, but all good things end, and perhaps right before she woke it would turn like many of her dreams into a nightmare.

With her body tightening at these thoughts she slid her short body off the couch, listening to the pads of her feet on the cold floor with an intensity that felt like pressure on her lungs.

It was hard, not being scared. Although her mind told her the dream could not hurt her there were frightening and upsetting things within it sometimes that when faced head on did not feel like a dream but a reality both weird and tangible. Sometimes that was worse than the nightmares she used to have at home, of watching mother crack open like an egg, spilling out a yolk instead of baby Hanabi, and still no one could fix her.

"S...sasu-kun?" The whisper was too quiet to break the stillness, although it sounded foghorn loud in the emptiness and she stilled at the foot of the stairs as best she could despite the full body shivers.

It had been a good dream, this she had to admit. A house full of people who smiled and laughed and cared for her. Days filled with sunlight and learning and playing where no one worried about whether or not she was too jumpy or scared or embarrassed. In this dream too there was no mother to worry about. Big HInata moved like her, spoke like her and sometimes even smelled like her but she was not mother and for that reason she was comforting. For that reason she was not scared that she might die.

Hopefully, if this was the end and it had to wake her up with a nightmare it would be bearable. Hopefully she would not cry out so loud that someone heard back home.

Hopefully she would not be brought to Grandfather to be reprimanded.

"Sasu-kun?" The wobble in her voice made the call louder than she had intended, and finally a rustle of sound replied but not from upstairs. Turning sharply, HIna stared at the window where the moon had risen in a silvery haze, almost full and otherworldly.

Sitting on the sill a raven cocked his head, blinking his bright red eyes a handful of times at her before jumping onto the coffee table.

Startled by the bird's approach Hina stumbled back, crashing into the railing of the staircase and nearly falling onto her backside in her scramble.

"Hina?"

It was such a relief, to hear that sound. Sasu's voice reached down from the dark bedroom, comforting as a warm blanket in the cold and Hina gasped, turning to scramble up the stairs on hands and knees in her hurry to get away from the black bird.

Sitting up on Sasuke's bed looking disheveled and sleepy Sasu straightened at her hurried approach, opening his mouth to ask what was wrong only to have the words knocked back down his throat as Hina's body hit his own, her arms so tight around him he could hardly breathe.

"I thought I woke up." He could not mistake the tears when she finally spoke, and confused he pulled back just enough to press his forehead to her own. "What?"

"I thought I stopped dreaming of you... there was...there was a bird- downstairs." Hina blinked her wet lashes, confused by her own explanation. "It... I thought you were gone."

This at least Sasu could understand and he pulled back, sticking his chin up in a challenge. "Did you want me gone?"

"What?" Hina dropped her hands from her face where she had been scrubbing tears away. "No!"

Sasu's face was too serious for his age, too serious for Hina to understand. She stared instead, studying the way his dark eyes filled with tears and with his bottom lip trembling he smiled. "I like you a lot, Hina-chan."

"I..." Hina blinked back. She liked Sasu. She liked him as much if not more than baby Hanabi. No, that wasn't right. She liked him different than baby Hanabi, different than even Mother.

"I lo-"

"Shss." Sasu's hand covering her mouth made her pause, his eyes trained on the doorway lit only with the edges of the hallway light. Strewn across the yellowed square of tiles was a bird's still unnerving shadow.

Together the children watched as the shadow moved in strange mechanical hops until the bird itself stood in the doorway, still now with his eyes fixed upon them on the bed.

"Don't be afraid." A familiar voice said from the bird's beak, making the children's eyes expand like ripples in a pond on their faces. "I'm here to take care of you. I promise."

Glancing at each other Sasu and Hina paused for a moment, before setting their faces to battle mode at once.

"You get the door." Sasu began, moving slowly to stand, the pillow in his hands looking more and more like a weapon.

"Right." Hina agreed, stepping onto the nightstand next to the bed between it and the door frame.

"I'll get the creepy bird."

All Itachi had time to do before they moved was squawk.

* * *

There were many things he had noted about Hinata over the last while that he adored. They dominated his thoughts and pushed out whatever else he had reluctantly been aware of before, when she had been just Hinata and nothing else.

Things like the way she bit her mouth when she thought, pulling on her bottom lip with her teeth until the skin turned pink as a freshly sliced strawberry ripe off the vine. Things like, how her eyes turned to half moons when she laughed, and how her joy negated the use of her Byakugan because why would she need a weapon of such magnitude when she was so happy for that moment in time?

These things could be enjoyed with her hair soaking wet from a dive in the slightly muddy waters of her favorite pond. They were easily spotted sparkles which remained bright even when her face was smeared with dirt, or her hands covered in the ash and soot of a recent fire.

He would dare to admit at least to himself, that he appreciated these things more even when she was breathless from a bout of training, or from a rapid run through wild grass and fern, skin shining with sweat and chest gasping. There was something wild and untamed about her in those moments. Something that he felt was private most of the time and which she contained within the elegant veneer of the Hyuuga as she had long been taught.

But the moment Sasuke Uchiha stepped into the Hyuuga House and caught sight of Hinata walking resolutely into the receiving hall all thoughts of that wild thing were ripped from his mind and he was reminded again that many people often referred to her affectionately as Princess.

All at once he understood.

The kimono was like everything that suited her, subtle in it's intricacies. The patterns of silver along the long draping sleeves only showed when the light hit them perfectly and otherwise appeared to be panels of simple white, like the snow that hid the beauty of endless snowflakes. At her back a subdued obi in gray cinched her waist, and though layers could be seen in neat folds at her neck and sleeves in various shades of white silver and gray it was not the complexity of the kimono that stunned, but the simplicity.

Her hair had been elaborately knotted high, framing her heart shaped face so that her eyes already large and all consuming became otherworldly, accented as they were by a pair of dangling silver earrings that seemed to jingle with each of her steps.

The only thing upon her that was brighter than her eyes was her mouth, tainted a pink that verged on red and which he had to purposefully not think about.

"Hinata." It came out of him before he had really thought of what else to say. In private they had long dropped honorifics. The thought of calling her Hyuuga or anything other than her name was laughable and yet in public and under the scrutinizing eye of her household doing anything but what was proper was a dangerous game to play.

Still, his name popped out of her mouth in reply, a reflex like drawing in a breath after breaking the surface of the water. "Sasuke!"

Most of the bodies present were mercifully too busy to note the exchange. There was a new boss in town and he was not the forgiving kind so thoughts were focused and tasks took precedence over gossip. This did not apply to the maid at Hinata's back who had arranged her kimono and hair in a slap-dash hurry for fear of upsetting the Lord Grandelder. With her back stiff and eyes wide the girl looked back and forth between the two shinobi in question as if unsure of what she had just witnessed.

"Please, if you would be so kind I would appreciate someone tidying my chamber before dinner was over." Hinata turned quickly, grasping the hands of the maid in her own. "I left chaos in my haste."

"O..of course, Lady Hinata. I will see to it immediately." The girl's nod was sincere although her gaze flicked to Sasuke and back sharply, as though admitting where her thoughts had obviously gone. Before she could perjure herself further she hurried back the way she came, head bowed and steps quick.

Together Hinata and Sasuke turned as though all was normal and well, stepping through the entrance hall and into the darkly lit passage leading to what had been the dining room before and which if Hinata's guess was correct would have been turned into the banquet hall.

Grandfather had never had a dinner that did not merit the use of two dozen places or more. The house, when it had been his had run extravagantly and mercilessly and it did not surprise his granddaughter to see the tension on the servant's faces which had so long been missing.

Compared to him, Hanabi's rudeness or tantrums were hardly to be noted as anything but cute.

"Did you manage with the children all right?" Hinata's whisper accompanied the pinch of his sleeve between her fingers, the minor graze of her pinky along his wrist shooting electricity up his arm so that he nearly jumped.

"Yes... yes, they're fine." It was a lie, and a badly told one considering the way he had left Sasu, crumbled in a heap on his bed. Itachi had not showed, but a raven had. Dark feathered and crimson eyed Sasuke had gazed upon it's perch on his windowsill and shaken his head slowly with regret. _"Brother...what have they done to you?"_

Hinata stopped, glancing back the way they had just come to see the coast was clear. Ahead the sound of chatter coming from behind the sliding door of the banquet hall cast them in shadow.

"What's the matter?" Earnestly she searched his face. "Are they all right? I'm sorry I left-"

"You had to." Sasuke frowned. "Naruto is up to something if he sent those two out to track you. I told him to leave it alone but he is always meddling-"

"Leave what alone?" Hinata tried to think back to the conversation she had interrupted between them, recalling suddenly the one sentence she had forgotten in the relief of having the Hokage leave without finding the children.

 _"Hinata doesn't know."_

Sasuke paused, realizing as fast as he breathed in the delicate scent of something flowery and subtle coming off of her that he had made yet another mistake. There was no avoiding the fact that having her looking at him earnest and close and painfully beautiful was doing negative things to his brain.

"I..." She was close, he realized. Close enough for him to count the few tiny freckles that had graced her nose from being out in the burning summer sun and to feel the tickle of her breath upon his mouth.

Pulled as though by gravity his gaze slid down, to that pink tinged pair of lips so determined to muddle his thoughts and instantly he stepped back, feeling the knock of the wall hard against his shoulder blades.

Standing perfectly still, only the color rushing to her face changed Hinata's wide eyed stare, her breath held in a fist tight within her chest. He had not answered her, and the question she had asked had fallen right out of her head because for one painful moment she thought perhaps he had looked at her mouth and hesitated.

The fervent thought was loud in her head, trying to silence the shouts of confusion inside her.

 _I am delusional. Stop this, Hinata._

"I'm so sorry... I... my... my Grandfather is inside." Hinata's voice said, although she could not have explained how she put together a sentence as he continued to stare at her. "I'm nervous. I haven't seen him since before I was sent to the academy to train."

This at least was true, and had been dominating her thoughts right up until she had seen Sasuke in the entrance hall standing like a deer in the headlights with no saving grace. Despite it all he seemed to believe her, breathing in deeply as he thought. "Don't be scared."

Flinching, Hinata shook her head. "I'm trying- I will try. I... I know it's irrational-"

"Stop." Sasuke cocked his head where he stood, keeping himself and the hands which itched to touch her from moving. "Have you forgotten who you are? What have you to fear, Hinata?"

Thinking sharply of Neji's similar words and the weight that came with them Hinata frowned, staring at her hands before her, draped in silks and lathered in oils and perfume yet still calloused with the painful wounds of hard inelegant work.

"You have forgotten, haven't you." It was not a question and so she did not answer, peering through her lashes at him for the shame.

Sasuke smiled, if only slightly and stood finally straight, pulling her by the arm towards the banquet doors where her family would no longer wait. With one hand on her sleeve, and one on the sliding door Sasuke stopped, allowing himself the momentary luxury of whispering the truth into the velvety shell of her ear.

"You are not a child for him to terrorize any longer. Look him in the eye and remember that you have fought and won wars, and it is by your doing that the moon still shines."

Quiet, Hinata breathed in his proximity like the fumes from heady wines, unable to keep the memory of his mouth on her cheek from earlier surfacing to tangle up her insides. He had called her Sister, and had smiled gently now as he breathed her courage to life like he would Katon.

She had been right, so painfully right when she told him she knew Sasu would make a good big brother. It pained her still more that she had been right when she had told Hanabi he would also make a good lover.

Before she could utter a word in response he slid the door open, revealing them together to the now tripled expanse of engawa trimmed floor. An endless row of low lacquered tables lined with cushions dominated the space and at the head, sitting straight backed and feral as a dragon was the Lord Grandelder.

Unconsciously both Sasuke and Hinata straightened at the imminent threat, their eyes focusing on that one creature among many which turned to look at them.

Thankful to have each other at their side, they stepped forward as only shinobi do. Unimpressed with the fear that attempted to hinder them.

* * *

 ** _sometimes you have good chapters. sometimes you have crappy chapters._**

 ** _Only the muse seems able to decide._**

 ** _much, much love,  
inky_**


	24. Chapter 24

_It was winter, that day. The banquet hall had been scrubbed clean, so that even in the dim light of the snow ladden clouds the engawa still gleamed. The scent of fresh tatami mats rose up with each of Hinata's steps and although she weighed merely a trifle standing hardly waist high at her Father's side she still counted the thump, thump, thump of her plodding feet across the great expanse._

 _It was an endless stretch of tatami, spread out in perfect symmetry, unreal and frightening the way nightmares often are. On the right side were the gardens, with the icing sugar dusting of snow upon all the twisted branches of the sakura tree. All the tendrils of willow were encased in ice so that when the breeze whispered they nearly sounded like wind chimes._

 _On the left the fusuma walls were painted with the subdued whites, grays and blacks of cranes standing guard upon a wetland, their pointed faces and elongated necks frozen as Hinata herself wished to be._

 _But it was not to be so. Even in the middle of the room, with distance between herself and grandfather she could feel herself start to tremble._

 _Outside the freezing air hummed a tuneless melody that shifted snow in handfuls as the bamboo suzo beat out a rhythmic tempo with the trickle of the fountain that fed the pond. The metronome perfection of the bamboo's tap...tap...tap was soothing in the agonized silence with all those pale eyes upon her._

 _Father's hand on her shoulder squeezed and she remembered at the last moment to bow. "The Hyuuga Heiress accepts the Lord Grandelder's decision to have her training continued through the Konoha Shinobi Academy. For the betterment of the Clan and for strengthening of her younger sister."_

 _Uncles and Aunts, elder cousins and relatives she was unsure of all gazed upon her as one. If they all took her molecules apart, byakugan upon byakugan would they see her inner thoughts along with the sparking color that was her chakra? Would they take note of the endless terror that grew bigger inside her every day?_

 _"Tactfully worded, Hiashi."_

 _From beneath her lashes Hinata watched as the bent knees of the man before her shifted minutely, rustling the plain robes of gray and white that draped upon him. They were the same robes he always wore. The only intricacy being the Hyuuga flame that danced on the right hand of his draping sleeve._

 _"The family takes note of the heiress's willingness to put the Hyuuga first and foremost. As she will. Always."_

 _Hinata breathed in that promise, told to her rather than requested. The cold air ached in her lungs, leeching heat for itself from her body and when she breathed out a cloud escaped her, disappearing into nothing as she feared she might as well._

The door sliding open swept the old memory in like the loosened petals of the sakura tree through the summer breeze. Shivering in the imaginary chill of a long gone winter's wind Hinata clenched her teeth and forced herself to stillness.

The banquet hall was the same. The same cranes stood watch on the wetlands in subdued hues, the same shining engawa lined the tatami mats on the right and beyond it the gardens beckoned with it's rhythmic bamboo suzo ever tapping.

But where the room had been an endless void of space many years ago now Hinata saw it for what it truly was. A stuffy gathering of men and women hot and bothered from a long trek, all of them at the whim of the one man who held the Hyuuga purse strings.

"Forgive me my tardiness, Lord Grandelder, Father, honored family." Hinata bowed from the neck down and no further, moving into the room with Sasuke at her elbow silent as a shadow though rife with the static hints of lightning fire. Even a warrior of his caliber felt the tension and heat in a Hyuuga family dinner.

The quiet that had overcome the room did not dissipate at her words. If anything it intensified. In the heat the buzz of insect wing searching the garden flower beds for nectar and the swish, swish, swish of many paper fans moving with the lazy turns of wrists followed Hinata's socked feet over the tatami mats to stand before the head of the table.

Father had been bumped from his place. He sat to the right of the thing which Hinata was refusing to look at. On his right by turn was Hanabi, and then Gaara all looking at her in various degrees of practiced placidity.

"So, she arrives." Grandfather's words were released with an unfamiliar wheeze that reminded Hinata years had passed since last she had stood upon that same spot, receiving his rejection as though it were a welcome gift. Though like all gifts given from enemies, it had been double edged.

Holding as still as the cranes which were painted beside her Hinata let her gaze rest upon her Grandfather, studying him with the same calculating expression he wore as he looked upon her.

"Hm..." Carefully the Lord Grandelder lifted a cup of tea to his lips, pale red rimmed eyes magnetized to this creature that was presented before him all the while. "How surprising things have turned out."

There was no doubt in Hinata's mind that she was one of those things he was referencing. Still, there was little sting in the word when it came from such feeble lips. Standing she could tell he was still a tall figure. Even kneeling he was imposing and yet there was a shake to his hands as he lifted the cup, and although they were the battle worn limbs that had so brutally beat her through her childhood years they were first and foremost the hands of an old man. For that was what he was.

Old.

Gray hair gone white reached to his elbows at his back and although he held himself with the same stiff propriety of past time there was a sheen of sweat upon his upper lip that made her think perhaps it was now costing him.

What indeed, did she have to fear?

"I do not recall you being tardy. Is this a habit you have developed since my absence?"

The bow Hinata offered in apology was not low, and she noted that at her side Sasuke did not bother to incline even an inch forward. He stared ahead, dark eyes unmoving, face passive.

Hinata was beginning to recognize that expression as one he wore when he was thinking of doing something dangerous.

"Well, we were not expecting you." Hanabi cut in before Hinata could speak her apology outloud. "Uninvited guests sometimes catch people off guard."

A rumble began in the ranks further down the table. Aunts and cousins fluttered their fans in elegant wrists, hiding their downturned mouths as they whispered their displeasure although they could not hide the deep frowns that pulled over their pale eyes.

"Careful, Second Daughter." Grandelder slid his eyes to her for a brief moment before sipping his tea. "Lest you appear petulant. Hiashi, how loose your daughter's tongue has become."

Lord Hiashi remained still, looking at the gardens past the shoulders of those who sat across from him and although he answered he did not turn. "We reap what we sow. She learned to speak her mind from those who did so."

Eyes snapping from her sister, to her Father and finally coming back to her Grandfather Hinata had one second to realize that perhaps she had misjudged the situation. The cold steel in his eye did not match the half formed smile that twisted his lips. And then all at once, ignoring the jabs that had been thrown at him from her family he lifted the cane that had been hiding beneath the table's lip, and tapped it on the ground just once, hard.

"Well, let me look at you."

The order sent a spasm through Hinata's body like the slip of an ice cube down her spine. Face held still as a mask she lifted her chin and moved forward half a step, smoothing the edges of her kimono sleeves with her fingers as she went. Standing tall she was a sight to behold. Subdued though the colors of her attire were they matched the quietness on her face and the unshaking calm with which she looked back at her Grandfather.

He smiled again, showing receding gums beneath the leathery lumps of his cheeks. "Turn for me."

Finally Gaara seemed to come to life at Hanabi's side, spine straightening and mouth opening to speak only to be cut off by Sasuke's short curt words.

"She is not a doll on display."

All the eyes so far fixated on Hinata and the immaculate smoothness of her expressions turned sharply to Sasuke, where by contrast the rumbling first flickers of a thunderstorm began to manifest in the darkness of his eyes.

"The Uchiha dares speak." Grandelder murmured after a pause, taking in the ebony glare and the raven hair that denoted the clan which had rivalled his own for generations before self destructing.

"Dare?" Sasuke began softly, too gentle to be anything other than knife edge sharp. Hinata had been on too many missions to not know when a disaster was imminent, when covers were likely to be thrown aside by a team member having lost his temper.

A snap of her head in Sasuke's direction, eyes wide and beseeching gave him pause. It was a familiar face he was looking at, for Hina had only just looked at him in the same way earlier in the day, wishing for his agreement on something without wording it.

It felt like swallowing kunai but he turned obstinately to Hiashi even as Grandelder drew a breath as though to say something. As if the old man didn't exist at all Sasuke plowed on. "Excuse my late arrival, Lord Hiashi. I'm sure your family is anxious to begin dinner with the long journey they have just undertaken. Shall we commence?"

It was phrased as a question but with a tug at Hinata's arm he was moving her to Gaara's side, away from the elder who now sat ramrod straight and seething.

They had hardly taken two steps before the handle of the cane came abruptly to rest on Hinata's shoulder. It's cold unyielding tap freezing her where she stood so that even her heart beat hesitated.

"I was not done with you yet, child."

The twitch of electricity happened in a blink. It was a breeze heady with the promise of lightning coming in on the hot summer wind. At their feet the immaculate floorboards rustled with grains of sand, and on everyone's skin goosebumps rose as chakra intensified.

Before Sasuke could say anything however, and just as Gaara reached Hinata's side she spoke, gathering all of her will to ignore the lump that rose at her throat with her heart when the cane touched her.

"To whom do you speak to, Grandfather?" With an elegant incline of her head she turned away, allowing Gaara to guide her to her place at the table. "I see no children here."

The rustle of the family gasping out their disbelief only had a second to live before Hiashi stood and clapped hard, drawing the attention of the very wide eyed servants witnessing the drama from their silent places at the edges of the room. "Dinner, please. If you would all be so kind."

"I have her." Gaara's whisper at Sasuke gave him leave to find his own place at Hanabi's side, and although Hinata had never quite felt so protected between the two tall figures of the Kazekage of Sand and Sasuke's subdued anger she could not avoid the feeling that she had managed to jump right out of the frying pan and foolishly into the fire.

* * *

"Did you find her?"

Kiba had hardly pushed aside the hangings at the ramen shop entrance when Naruto's voice called out to him from the warmth inside. He had hoped the shade within would offer some semblance of coolness, a haven from the scorching earth outside but it was not to be so. Inside the steam of many broths and the heat of frying only intensified the sweltering air and trickled sweat down his back.

At least, it smelled delicious. Perhaps he could eat his anxiety back.

"Yes." He retorted, eyeing the Hokage sitting at his usual place, halfway through a bowl he now ignored.

"And?" Naruto studied him intently as he sat down, looking out again to see if Shino and Akamaru were outside only to find nothing.

"And, something is wrong." Kiba waved at the cook who recognized him despite his year long absence, already grabbing the pork cutlet the Inuzuka family were so fond of in their ramen. "I can't believe you were right, but something is wrong."

Naruto did not reply. Sitting beside him with chopsticks forgotten in his hand he stared at the broth in his bowl and watched the spice and oil swirl on the topmost layer in a sparkling chaos that suddenly felt too decadent for his clenching stomach. There were few times in his life he had wanted to be wrong. This was one of them. One of the other times he had nearly lost his best friend and comrade.

"What is it you think is wrong?" Naruto finally asked, pushing the bowl before him forward. At this rate Ichiriku would start charging him for his meals again if he kept leaving unfinished second or third helpings.

"I couldn't tell you, that's the thing." Kiba buried his hands into his hair, closing his eyes as he tried to bring up the way Hinata's face had looked at the moment his insides swirled with worry. Her pale eyes had widened, pink mouth hesitating between a smile of confusion and the words she offered. In the light the brightness of her skin and the smattering of freckles he did not remember on her nose had distracted, but not enough for that strange tingle of dishonesty to crawl over his spine.

 _Hinata... what are you hiding?_

"You couldn't... or wouldn't?" Naruto's question came out of left field, surprising Kiba enough that his eyes snapped open, turning to the Hokage in disbelief.

"You think I would help her hide something?"

Naruto frowned back. "Believe me, there are a lot of things that I never would have thought could happen happening right now. Anything goes. So..." He lifted his chin in question. "Can you tell me or do you not want to?"

Kiba tried, for all he was worth to look offended. He was a shinobi, of an ancient and powerful clan, with an immaculate record. The suggestion that his loyalty to his village and Hokage would waver at the price of a girl was an insult.

And yet.

Sasuke's smirk flashed through his mind, the slide of his hand across her hip, the press of his mouth to Hinata's cheek so easy and familiar.

"I don't know if what I am sensing is real... is real." Kiba admitted finally, thankful to turn away as the bowl of steaming ramen was offered to him from behind the counter.

Naruto stayed perfectly still, lest he scare away the flighty thing that was Kiba's intentions to be truthful. "No? Well... why don't you try me."

* * *

Behind him the dusk had turned the sky into bloody gore, although at it's edges the cooling calm of violet night was creeping ever forward, sparkling with the first twinkles of stars.

Hinata fixed her eyes not on the heavens however but on Sasuke sitting across from her at the table with his jaw set harshly and his dark eyes staring straight back at her with distaste.

It didn't occur to her that only a handful of weeks back she might have been terrified by the expression on his face, that she would not have been able to read the lines on his brow and what they meant. Perhaps she would have even thought his displeasure was with her.

Now however she shifted, aware of Gaara's grip on her wrist like a warm shackle as she tried to convince him with nothing but her stare not to do something disastrous. It was proving difficult.

"How can one be proud of a decision if it was made in secrecy?" Grandfather asked easily, watching as the servants finished arranging the tables into one endless line across the wide expanse of the banquet hall.

Relatives settled with soft murmurs and the rustling of expensive fabrics, but no one bothered to speak with the same comfortable tone and volume as the Lord Grandelder now presiding over the head of the table.

It was impressive that the dinners which Sasuke had so loathed before with only the Hyuuga and Kazekage present could suddenly seem like a better alternative than what was happening now.

"The engagement was not a secret. You were mailed an invitation to the wedding the moment the date and time was decided nearly a half a year ago." Hiashi retorted thinly, looking straight ahead at the cousin who had chosen to sit at Grandfather's right hand side, to buffer the space between him and the Uchiha sitting at Hanabi's left.

"Not the engagement, but the decision to even approach." Grandfather continued, then waved a hand as if the subject were no longer of interest to him. "No matter. What is done is done, and I am not here for that. I came to see if the rumors were true."

"What rumors?" Hiashi had never been one to let emotions show, but then Sasuke had to admit that none of the Hyuuga had ever been particularly emotive. This dinner was different not just because of the number of guests, of this there was no denying. Even Hinata sitting across from him stiff shouldered and blank faced could not help the way her ears suddenly turned a bright cherry red.

"The rumors that the eldest Hyuuga daughter has finally managed to get engaged. And to the Lord Kazekage no less. A fine conquest, especially considering the scandal of the first attempt with the Hokage."

The servant placing a platter of elegantly sliced sashimi let out a little breath as his fingers fumbled, dropping the platter to accent the awkward with a bang.

"Apologies, oh a thousand apologies my Lord Hiashi-"

"Nonsense." Hiashi waved a hand, focused instead on his Grandfather's uninterested face turned to the gardens.

"You make the Kages sound as though we are a hunted breed." Gaara's voice surprised enough to draw the attention of all the relatives including those down the table. Even the Lord Grandelder turned to him interestedly. More pointedly Gaara frowned, "I was not aware I had been a target."

"Nor I." Grandfather admitted. "If I am honest, I would have pinned such plotting on the youngest." He motioned with his tea cup in the direction of Hanabi sitting frozen at his side, eyes boring holes into the laquered table before her. "She is the conniving kind. But then, it is always the quiet ones one does underestimate."

"Fools do, at least." Sasuke's mouth ran off before he could process the minute shake of Hinata's head across the table. Grandelder's lipid smile turned into a sneer.

"Do not be so quick to defend them, Uchiha. You too have been drawn in to be used is that not right, Second Daughter? It is what they were raised for, trained for. But what would you know of family expectations and maintaining a legacy? You who lost it all in such a waste of a slaughter."

What had until that moment been the thick pressure of chakra, only barely decipherable from the oppressive touch of the summer heat turned to the static shock of a coming lightning storm, Sasuke's eyes flickering from cold charcoal to heated lava red.

"Sasuke." Hinata leaned forward, voice desperate and perhaps it was her gasp that kept him sitting or perhaps it was that Hiashi finally stood.

"Leave us." The snap was at the servants, the flare of his anger thrown across the expanse of the room to all the Hyuuga eyes watching with growing hesitation. " _Now_."

If it was easy to forget that the Lord Hiashi had softened his stranglehold on the house and servants to a more gentle grip as he aged it was just as easy to recall his temper at the tone of his voice. No one bothered to attempt a disagreement, though many glanced at the Lord Grandelder for permission before rising and exiting the room in a hurry.

In the wake of the last servant closing the sliding door, the leftover members of their party listened to the ever tapping rhythm of the suzo in the garden and their own rapidly beating hearts humming at their eardrums before Hiashi finally spoke.

"You enter my home with hardly a days notice-"

" _Your_ home?" Lord Grandelder scoffed, though he was firmly ignored.

"You insult my daughters, my soon to be sons.-"

"Disgraceful-"

"You were removed from this place for your lack of foresight. Do not pretend you left Konoha willingly, you were forced out for the survival of our Clan. You could have killed them both-" Hiashi's temper had never so shown itself and in the room there was no space for another. Silent and perhaps stunned his daughters and the young men watched, unsure of what the outcome of such an explosion could be.

"Yet look at what that has done for them." Lord Grandelder stood to match Hiashi's seething stance. He waved a wrinkled hand at Hanabi. "Look at how you have filed down the teeth of this creature. So much promise in such a small child. She had ferocity to spare and yet here, now..." He looked at her, at the way her gaze rose slowly to meet his, and although he could not have known the effort it took not to rise to strike him he still sneered. "So very silent she sits."

Something in Sasuke's body shifted, a tiny tell that caught the eye not just of Hanabi at his side but Hinata across from him and abruptly she reached forward, stretching across the table to grip his hand. "Sasuke."

"And then, there's that." Lord Grandelder turned sharply to Hinata at her movement, shoving her with his attention back to her place. "The one I had long given up on, rising to honour the family at the last moment."

"Because the war she fought means nothing." Hiashi shook his head, disgust dampening his anger to sheer nausea. "Because none of her excellence as a shinobi amounts to anything?"

"What good does such excellence do the family if it is hidden in the shadows? What price does it hold if it does not uphold our name to our enemies and peers? No, this marriage will be her crowning glory, _if_...if she manages not to fail at it like she did so much in her past."

Hinata, like Hanabi looked steadily back at her elder, focusing the sharp gaze of her Byakugan not on the hateful red rimmed eyes that studied her but on the wrinkled grayness of the creature before her, on the shivering tremble of his lips as he spoke his venom, on the frailty of the bones beneath thin skin.

And as she took a breath, thinking of excusing herself lest she say something damning the words were suddenly coming not from her but from Gaara as he rose, with Sasuke right behind him.

"These are family matters... and although I am hopeful to one day be considered family I am wholly uneducated on these topics..." He paused, glancing first at Hanabi, then at Hinata and seeing nothing but surprise and curiosity among the strain on their faces he continued.

"Except for I do know that the Hyuuga daughters do not deserve this treatment. It is by their grace and respect for their elder which allows you, Lord Grandelder such ease with your tongue."

There was a moment of silence, in which Grandfather hissed a breath between his teeth, likely garnering a snap of something foul to argue with but Gaara plowed on, green eyes darkening as his chakra, like Sasuke's shifted through the room, rumbling as the groans of a hunting cat just before pouncing.

"I was hardly raised to be so polite or forgiving. I will only request this once. Please, for the duration of this wedding, lest it all become terribly unpleasant..." Gaara did not smile, did not soften his words though their silkiness had the edge of a knife to it. " _Watch your mouth_."

Stunned to silence, the Lord Grandelder and Hiashi both watched as the Kazekage of Suna reached down for Hinata's hand and having received it in his rose to exit the room with her at his elbow.

Across the table Sasuke did the same for Hanabi, gripping tight the hand she offered and which despite her best intention shook like a feather before holding onto him firm enough to ache.

As the door slid closed behind them Hiashi turned finally to his Grandfather, and since it would appear that all pretense was off he shook his head, allowing the contempt to show plainly on his face.

"Do not pretend it was not me that nursed their potential, their strength if indeed they have any is _my_ doing." Grandfather's shaking voice was beyond infuriated into livid, yet Hiashi did not bother allowing himself to be shaken.

"No, Grandfather. Their triumphs are wholly in spite of you." The truth once spoken felt almost as good as a slap delivered.

* * *

The house was bustling in a way that Hinata could hardly remember it capable of. Long ago there had been so much more to be done. When mother had been alive and cousins and aunts, uncles and trainers and guards had needed to be housed within the confines of the Hyuuga Main House only then did the anthill tempo of work echo that of now.

Faced with so much chaos upon exiting the dining hall Hinata felt Gaara's already tense body wound all the tighter at her side. Gripping his hand in hers she pulled, guiding him through the halls in the direction of the kitchen gardens where they would surely find themselves alone.

It took effort not to look back, to not see where Sasuke and Hanabi found themselves going but to look back would be a mistake she could not afford. So she kept going, swallowing the desire down with her malaise on the whole evening.

Silent at her side Gaara let himself be led, until the unassuming wood door, topped with the dull white squares of rice paper appeared before them at the end of a hall somewhere on the left side of the house he had never wandered into. With a little jostling Hinata slid it on awkward tracks out of the way, letting them into the gardens only ever really used during the days.

The sun had set while they argued, and although night was mostly woken it was still sleepy, more a dull grayish blue than a deep true navy. There was just enough light to see by as they stepped out into the freshness of tilled earth, the scent of herbs and a finally cooling breeze on such a hot suffocating day.

"I... I doubt anyone will think to bother us here." Hinata whispered, finding her voice less than willing to oblige as she slid the door closed behind them. "Only the servants ever really come here, and that is during the day for the things they need at meal times."

"Ah." Gaara nodded, exhausted in a way that he had not been in some time. Absently he studied the trees that formed a strong line against blowing winds at the end of countless rows all with plants growing like soldiers ready to march. He could recognize the long feathery wisps of onions, the lace edges of tomato plants, the widespread leaf tall potato.

Careful to not step on any growing thing bigger than the tufts of grass between the rows he breathed in the scent of the garden and with hands clasped behind his back closed his eyes.

Stamped on his eyelids was Hanabi, looking up at her Grandfather with all the hellfire of a thousand splendid suns contained within her pale Hyuuga eyes. How the man did not melt beneath her gaze he was not sure, but to see so much rage contained within such a small body frightened him.

It frightened him for he knew what it felt like, to be so eaten alive by anger, the acid of it chipping away at his insides the longer it raged.

"...Gaara-kun." Hinata's voice drew him back, the feel of her palm between his shoulder blades making him turn to find her wide eyes imploring. "Are you all right?"

"I should be asking you." He admitted, forcing his mouth into a smile that did not meet his eyes. "I understand now how upset you and Hanabi were just yesterday to hear the news of his coming."

"I'm... I'm all right, actually." Hinata tried to smile as well though it fell flat near the end at the thought of Sasuke's sharingan lighting up his face, less like the flowers of which she had thought of before and more like blood. "I cannot say that Hanabi and Sasuke were so lucky."

The name Sasuke did not escape Gaara's notice, nor had it when it left her lips twice during the very short dinner. Carefully he turned back to the garden in the hopes of hiding the many gears and knobs turning within his mind.

"Thank you for standing up to him. Of all the people present it is you he would have the hardest time arguing with. He respects you. As... do most people." Hinata continued. "You never cease to surprise me."

"Do I?" Gaara dared to glance back at her again, tight roping as he was between the rows of what he thought might be beets although he was not sure. "Did you expect me to sit silently?"

"No." Hinata frowned, surprised at his take on her words. "No, but... I certainly did not expect you to threaten him into silence."

"Ah."

"Thank you. I... I have a lot to thank you for in fact. You have been... so incredibly patient with me-"

"Where were you, today?"

The question was so unexpected Hinata stopped following him down the row, watching instead the way the dimming light slid sideways along his robes, muting the roan red color of his clothing to a dull brown. With his head bowed she could not see the expression on his face, but that did not hide the stiff set of his shoulders, the tight grip of his hands at his back.

"I...I was at the-" Hinata began slowly, stopping abruptly as he turned to look at her, green eyes sharp as the spine covered edges of the nettle growing at her feet.

"Don't tell me you were at the hospital, please. I know that is not the case." Softly said, Gaara turned to the nearest plant, caressing between his finger and thumb the leaf extending to touch his arm.

In the silence his sigh rustled the nettle to dancing and carefully he studied Hinata instead. "You are not going to tell me, are you." It was not offered as a question, or at least Hinata clung to the hope that she was not expected to answer. There was no breath in her lungs with which to reply, regardless. She waited instead, watching his approach with growing trepidation.

Still, his hands on her face, holding her gently were hardly reason for alarm. Although there was a wound there that she could no longer ignore Gaara still looked at her from within them, ever gentle, ever kind.

"Hinata." Carefully, so as to not alarm her Gaara closed his eyes, pressing his forehead to her own as he thought. "I have doubts."

It should not have surprised her, the tears that suddenly rose to choke her. Yet they did. It hurt to hear his growing disappointment in her spoken out loud though she had long seen it coming.

"Ah, Gaara-kun." His name escaped her with a wet laugh that telegraphed her sadness. "I do not blame you. How could I?"

"But you will not put my doubts to rest?" The flutter of his lashes nearly tangled with her own and at their close proximity there was no denying that he was beautiful. Beautiful like the rolling sand dunes of his homeland against the stark blue sky, beautiful like the ever green flutter of the tree canopy on a hot summer day, and though the human part of her was left gasping there was a pain too acute inside her to ignore. Even with him there so close she could have well breathed out to kiss him. It would have been so easy, so lovely, so kind.

The pain yearned for another set of lips however, for another pair of eyes.

"I am so sorry that I cannot...at least not now."

Like stepping back from an untriggered exploding tag Gaara released her, searching her face for something he was unsure he would know how to name.

"I could love you," The whisper that left her was a broken thing offered with shame. "I could love you, as you love me, I could..."

"But you don't now."

It should not have been relief he felt and yet there it was, when her silent face looked back at him both ashamed and teary eyed.

"L...loving is..is not so simple as to feel, I know this. I... I had to learn this." Gently, Hinata's hands rose to her chest, pressing there where an agony she was familiar with had begun to sprout again. "It is choosing, day in...day out. Choosing again and again and I could, Gaara-kun. I could choose you. You are...you would be a wonderful choice."

Despite it all, Gaara was not naive enough to think he was her first choice.

* * *

There was nowhere to go that was not flooded with servants. His instinct had been to follow Hinata, yet Hanabi's hand had led him on a different route, up staircases, past long elegant corridors lined with the fluttering lights of oil lamps and the shadows they brought with them.

Doors lined the third hall they wandered down, and when she stopped at one to step inside he only had a moment to orient himself. They were on the same floor as Hinata's chambers, he realized right as she guided him inside and closed the door behind him.

Hanabi's rooms were like Hinata's the way ice is like fire. The marble floor, the wide open windows and the porch outside them were the same, but that was where the similarities ended. Hanabi's bed was a large wooden thing, all carved posts and long dangling curtains to block the light. There were wardrobes at every corner and a large painted screen which Sasuke took to be where she did most of her changing, seeing as she headed there the moment the door closed, already undoing the obi at her back with frantic angry hands.

Someone had cleaned, and for that Hanabi was thankful as she did not think it would help the situation for Sasuke to know she was largely a disaster not just inside but in general.

"I...I keep shaking." Bitterly said the words reached out to him from behind the screen, an admission he thought was rather private and which he took to mean he had finally entered into Hanabi's confidence, as far as one could go with honesty, at least.

"The adrenaline of a fight takes time to wear off." Calmly he wandered to the bed, studying the luxurious crimson and gold blankets tucked neatly upon it. Hinata's by contrast were plain white, like clouds.

"I have fought many times and never had- ugh." Hanabi stormed back out from behind the screen, the collar of her kimono loose at a shoulder, her hair long undone from it's elaborate pins to drape about her face. Framed by the loose waves and with her mouth bitten pink in her displeasure there was no denying her youth, nor the fear which she had stomped on through dinner. She was young in a way Sasuke could not remember being, in a way that he dared say reminded him of Sasu, if he was honest. Smiling, despite himself he sat at the edge of her bed and waited.

Stubbornly she marched towards him, turning around at the last moment. "Undo it." Then after a moment, "Please."

"Might I point out that your father would be...displeased with this arrangement?" Sasuke began, although he was already taking the long endless fabric in hand, trying to remember Hinata's hands guiding his own the night his heart began it's endless shatter.

Ignoring this, Hanabi waited, feeling the lessening pressure at her waist as the obi began to loosen it's grip. "I have sparred too many times to count, and fought through the exams- the idea that adrenaline is making me shake-"

"Sparring is not the same as looking a real enemy in the eye." Sasuke's scolding was gentle, the hiss of the silk sliding through knots in his hands harmonizing with Hanabi's annoyed grunt.

"You have everything you need, save experience. Do not fault yourself for that."

"No need," Hanabi's smirk was sad as she turned around, gripping the kimono closed with her hands as he folded the endless ribbon of the obi in his own. "Everyone else finds fault in it for me."

"Not your sister." Sasuke did not let her wallow, focused on the fabric in his hands even as he argued. "Nor I."

This was at least too true to fight about and so Hanabi swallowed the knot in her throat instead, watching him working methodically for a long moment before dragging in a deep breath.

"I saw you were going to say something to Grandfather. Or felt it, rather..." At the memory the hair on the back of her neck rose on end, like it would if lightning clouds festered above her, ever threatening.

Sasuke placed the folded fabric on the bed beside him then, turning to look at her calmly. "Probably I would have made the situation much worse. The Kazekage is more...controlled, than I. He said what I meant to do."

There was no doubt in Hanabi's mind Sasuke would have shut Grandfather's mouth permanently, had he been allowed.

But he had not. "Good thing Hinata stopped you then." Hanabi murmured, studying his face for something, anything.

It showed in the sudden stillness that came over him, the slow methodical way he lifted his dark eyes to her, the silence with which he replied.

"Uchiha-san." Hanabi said, enunciating clearly before continuing. "How long have you and my sister been on a first name basis?"

It did not escape him that he was in her room, alone. That next door in her sister's room he had even gone so far as to spend a whole night, sharing the same oxygen, dreaming only a few feet from her. It had been foolish of him to think that Hinata's sister would be easily deceived, that she would not see something, despite the care they took to maintain their secret.

They were two sides of the same coin, and had he been less self involved perhaps he would have eventually noticed the bright thing that was Hanabi, beneath the boring and overwhelming title that was fiance.

Letting out a long breath Sasuke reached out, feeling the curve of her hip beneath the many folds of furisode and kimono as he pulled her gently forward.

"Are you jealous, little Hyuuga?" Carefully he lifted her chin, studying the downward turn of her mouth, the even pristine paleness of her face where Hinata's nose had gained freckles through their long sun filled days.

It ached to know he would have to look at her and remind himself she was not Hinata. That he would have to focus on the differences, ever fighting against comparisons that were unfair.

This was not her doing, however and if there was anything he owed it was to give Hanabi a fighting chance at a happiness he had long ago given up on.

"...I..." Hanabi began, uncertain of what to say. It seemed ridiculous in the face of his hyperfocus on her now to think of Hinata being the cause of jealousy. Her own inability to call him by his first name was not anyone's doing but her own.

"S..should I be?" she managed finally, gaining strength near the end as he pulled her ever closer, sliding his thumb across her bottom lip.

In order not to answer Sasuke smiled, and although he tried not to think of her, it was still Hinata's mouth he yearned for when he pressed his lips to Hanabi's own.

* * *

It was sometime after when Hinata finally wandered to her room. Gaara had lingered with her in the garden, quiet and morose although not unpleasant. Together they had picked handfuls of tea leaves, wandering to the kitchen where the servants were cleaning up the meal not eaten and which they gladly served to the Lord Kazekage and Lady Hinata away from the prying eyes of the Hyuuga Grandelder.

The tea had warmed her stomach, and soothed the nerves so frayed Hinata could hardly remember feeling whole. Gaara had bid her good night shortly after, touching her cheek with something quiet and sad but not altogether despairing as he departed.

It should have been sleep that she was thinking of then. The next day was the end of a very long struggle, and yet the thought of laying in bed made her itch all over.

Through the halls finally growing quiet once more she wandered, feeling stiff and constrained in the kimono. Or perhaps, if she was honest it was her skin that made her feel so caged.

Wearily she had only just taken a hold of her door knob when her father's voice called out her name. Down the hall Hiashi walked towards her, face as tense at it had been at dinner which Hinata suspected could only mean more bad news.

"Daughter." His steps slowed and although he was not a particularly affectionate person the care with which he studied her face could not be denied. Smiling weakly Hinata nodded. "Father."

"How are you? Is the Lord Kazekage off to bed already?" Hiashi searched the hall behind her as if to find him.

"Yes, some time ago, I think." Hinata nodded. "Dinner was exhausting."

"I am afraid it will continue this way for some time. He did not have a response at the moment but that doesn't mean he won't continue the conversation, given the opportunity." Hiashi shook his head. "It pains me to wonder when he will finally die, and yet..."

"And yet." Hinata agreed, allowing herself to touch her father's cheek gently. "Do not fret, Father. He may control much of the Hyuuga situated from Konoha but here you are in charge. The wedding will go forward... and the rest will follow." She sighed. "I...I doubt even gods could stop it now."

"Perhaps if I had done more praying they would have kept him at bay." Hiashi murmured, then thinking of the other things that he might want to bring to a deities attention he swallowed and studied his eldest with calculating eyes.

"I wanted to check on you...You have been very busy, considering the wedding is coming up. Did you meet Aburame-san and Inuzuka-san today? They...were looking everywhere for you."

There was an implied thing within that sentence which made Hinata pause. In the silence Hiashi waited, studying her with care until she forced a smile. "I did see them. Thank you for checking. They will be here tomorrow, for the start of the fireworks. The...they probably looked for me at the hospital and didn't find me, I am guessing?"

Hiashi's slow nod left room for an elaboration and so she cleared her throat. "The...the cranes for the sakura tree are not yet finished, Father. S-Uchiha-san offered to help me with them and so that's where I was, most of the day today. One thousand does not seem like a lot and yet..." she shrugged, an inelegant gesture that would have got her a smack on the head as a child and which she now managed to make lovely.

Although her answer made sense, it still sat uneasily within Hiashi's mind. As did the maid's unsteady report on things found within Lady Hinata's room. Things with no explanation. Men's things.

"I know that I have failed you before, my daughter." Hiashi replied, watching Hinata's eyes widen.

"I know that in the past I have allowed things to come to pass that should not have. And for that you have my sincerest apologies. I hardly have right to your trust, but I hope that should you find yourself in trouble...that you would come to me."

"Oh...Father... Father, there's nothing to-"

"Regardless, this needs saying." Hiashi waved away the words which to him held the tang of a lie upon them. "You should remember that you are a daughter of the Hyuuga house, and although I hold you and your sister to the highest of standards I know too what it is to be human and to make mistakes." his gaze never left her face, not even as her cheeks reddened from shame.

"I have made many of my own, and made you suffer for them. Let me help you, should you need me. Please."

With her head hanging low Hinata let out a sigh. "I am a daughter of the Hyuuga Main House. Believe me, Father that I will not bring dishonour to this family. I know who I am."

When the door closed between them, Hinata pressed her forehead to the solidity of the wood, breathing in slow intervals as she thought.

All of her life now stretched before her, as it once had with Naruto ever present and now Sasuke like a shadow she could not shake. Endless days and years she would endure, watching his family grow with Hanabi at his side and she...

She had one more day.

It took time to remove the kimono. Time still to brush her hair down, to change into the comfortable yukata she favoured late at night, to pack her bag for the following day. Time she needed to make a decision as she faced her window.

"One day." Gently she pushed at a feather left on the marble ground from Neji's earlier distressing transformation. "One day, Neji-nii. Father. Hanabi. One day."

She opened the window, climbed onto the porch and faced the night sky before heading in the direction of home.

* * *

 _ **Hello dears,**_

 _ **I continue to chip away at this. There's not much left which might mean some breaks between chapters that are longer than I would like (i'm thinking a week or so?) That's pretty typical of me for endings. I struggle sometimes.**_

 _ **There was one review on the last chapter which really surprised me and though it didn't upset me it did leave me feeling strangely uncomfortable. It spoke about how much Hanabi was despised, which I understand not being particularly fond of Hanabi, especially here where she has a bit of a spoiled personality.**_

 _ **If my story and the way that I am writing it is upsetting to you I would encourage you not to read it. I don't want to upset anyone of course and so I am not taking the review as a bad review, but an honest one and it made me sad to see so much frustration in the story. This is shared for the enjoyment of the readers. If it isn't enjoyable totally let it go. It's not worth it to suffer through, trust me.**_

 _ **Much much love,  
Inky**_


	25. Chapter 25

Hanabi smelled like the smoke from fireworks over the heady scent of wild flowers on a hot summer night. Beneath his hands her hips were brittle as a baby bird and although her mouth yielded easily against his own the softness he anticipated was not there.

Hesitation reigned, for both of them. Pink cheeked and confused she stared as he pulled away, and although they did not speak it, both felt the wrongness in their bones for it was obvious they had made a mistake.

There was no stopping the tsunami of expectations now placed upon their joint shoulders. The wedding celebration being a minor note in a lifelong list of goals. Round baby filled bellies being the one in both their minds that they now dreaded. There had been nothing wrong in technicality with the press of Sasuke's mouth to Hanabi's own, and yet the crawling itch of disquiet lingered.

It promised long years of malaise and discomfort.

Sasuke's hands squeezed at her waist, a pulse of agreement that told her he too did not want to discuss it and softly he whispered his goodbye before making his way out the door and towards home.

It did not faze him that Hanabi let him go, that her back remained turned away from him and had he known she pressed a hand to her mouth with the intention of rubbing his touch away he would have only felt relief and panic at once.

Instead he took a slow walk back to the Uchiha grounds where the rubble of half finished homes still hunkered in shadowy corners among the whispering trees. The moon was a giant orb of light in the heavens, not yet full and perfect. That would be saved for the next night, when the fireworks Hanabi had so carefully picked would dance with it in the dark sky to mark the celebration of two ancient shinobi houses, joining together as one.

Entering the house afforded him a moment to pause the frantic thoughts that had begun spinning through his mind. The light was on in the hallway upstairs but his bedroom door was closed. Hina, who he had left on the couch downstairs had disappeared and the open window in the living room rustled with the curtain as the late evening breeze blew casually through.

One blink had his gaze shifting to the demon red glow of his killer ancestry. Kunai fit from his sleeves into his palms cold where his skin felt hot. Silent as the shadow that trailed him he climbed the stairs, listening intently all the while for the children's voices and although he heard none there certainly was a commotion happening within the room that made his blood sprint through his veins.

A quick glance in the hall bathroom made him start to find both children fast asleep in a nest of towels within the curving arms of the bathtub. Puzzled and increasingly apprehensive Sasuke turned back to his bedroom, opening the door to find it empty but for a disaster.

The pillows were strewn about the floor, the high backed chair tucked into a corner by his desk had been knocked clean onto it's head. The nightstand was on its face, and the lamp upon it although lit sat spread eagle on the floor casting light and shadows in strange strips across the ground.

From his bathroom a voice called out, more feeble than angry though it still had the sting of irritation within it.

"Sasuke. Open this door."

Startled, Sasuke moved forward, stepping over the mess to fling the bathroom door wide and not a second later a raven shot through, all ruffled feathers and unimpressed corvid squawks.

"What-?" Sasuke began, and pressed a hand to his face. "They locked you in here?"

"Those...those _children,_ " Itachi's voice retorted from the raven's beak, beady crimson eyes shining as he shifted on the windowsill with a twitchy sort of displeasure that was hard to miss. "Unbelievable the way they just..."

Sasuke's hand rising up to stop him was all he could manage, choking down a tired laugh and feeling at once like it might not be well received. "Don't be upset with them. You should have said nothing. How did you think children would react to a speaking crow?"

"Raven." Itachi corrected, then with a shrug of his feathery shoulders he popped, exploding into a handful of ebony feathers before materializing into his usual foggy shape. "They called me creepy."

"Accurate." Sasuke retorted with no malice, waving a hand at him now. "You being see through does not help your defense."

"I'm not saying they were wrong." Itachi tried to sound like his feelings were not wounded but failed only a little. "Just that it was rude to say out loud."

"What happened?" Finally hearing the note of seriousness to his brother's voice Sasuke let the amusement which had tickled at his side fade away. "Did that damned Susa do this to you?"

"Could have just as easily been Ama, if she knew what we had been up to. But it benefits Lord Susa that she not know." Itachi examined his hands which he had loathed only a few days before with their transparent easily yielding skin, only to now realize there were much worse things. Being a bird did not suit a human soul, it chaffed endlessly.

A cold fist tightened in Sasuke's stomach at his words. He and Neji had been risking much, and he knew now from the quiet silence on Itachi's face that they had been caught. It did not escape him that this strange punishment had darker sides he did not fully grasp.

"You need to stop. It's all over tomorrow regardless." If Sasuke had been able to shake him he would have. "Stop now. What will they do to you if you continue to disobey their orders?"

Itachi's eyes slid slow from the glowing moon bright in the heavens to Sasuke's equally dark eyes, bright despite everything. Ignoring his question he replied with a teasing tone.

"I suppose congratulations are in order."

His brother's face twisted into confusion for only a brief moment before catching on to Itachi's sarcasm. Turning away impatiently he began to gather pillows from the floor, making the bed the same way he would go about shredding through a field of enemies.

"Congratulations _are_ in order, are they not?" Itachi continued, shifting through the steady stripe of moonlight that flooded through the parted curtain as he followed his brother through the room.

"You mean because of my still uncanceled wedding?" Sasuke finally bit the obvious bait, turning to look at him at the same time that he slammed his chair back into its rightful place. Absently his parental brain thought he might have just woken the children, that too was suddenly Itachi's fault. It was easier if he was angry at him.

"Yes. If that... _is_ still happening?" Itachi let the question hang, waiting expectantly for a thing which Sasuke could not deliver. His attempt to be playful was not welcome. There was still Hanabi's smell in Sasuke's nose, a mix of summer sun, perfume and firework smoke, reminding him of the endless days that were to come. And although Itachi's motives were as always for Sasuke's own good...

"You have to stop." Softly said the demand had all the force of a scream and Itachi let his face slip to the more honest quiet of growing dismay.

"You are going to suffer through the rest of your life for this mistake. How can I?"

"It is not a mistake if I know the consequences." It would hardly help to be insulted that his older brother still considered him incapable of making choices for himself, unable to weigh all the options before committing himself to the one that upheld his priorities. To him, he was still clearly just a child.

"If only you would allow Hinata to also make that choice, by at least offering her-"

"She will not choose me. Even when I- if I do such a thing." Sasuke spun, throwing the broken lamp at the wall just to hear something shatter. The pitter patter of feet told him the children had indeed woken but their self preservation instincts had kicked in and instead of coming into the room the sound of them heading downstairs assured him he had a few more minutes.

Itachi gazed back with his unsteady misty shape. Usually bright and faintly glowing Sasuke could see the ink blots that now ebbed and flowed, twisting like the feelings he no doubt had inspired inside his brother's spirit.

Before he could cut the conversation now threadbare from overuse short Itachi shifted forward, rustling the feathers he had left behind with his movement as he searched out Sasuke's unwilling gaze. "I chose you. I choose you, even now. Why do you think I am shoved into that corvid, threatened with that permanent ill fitting cage even now? Because I choose you, I owe you happiness, not-"

"I did not want you to choose me." Shoulders slumped and suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion Sasuke shook his head gently. "I never did."

Frozen in place he was a piece of art work, made of light and shadow and spotting ink that swirled and twisted within his soft casing. Still, the soul which the gods had allowed passage into Sasuke's life did not need real eyes to show the sudden pain that flickered there, too all encompassing to hide.

"Y...you-" Itachi started, stopping when Sasuke shook his head once more.

"You made your choices." His little brother lifted his chin, finally gazing at him from a height Itachi realized was taller than him. "I was robbed of mine. Do not become thief of my future again. I beg you."

"No...no, I... of course." Already the edges of his being were coming apart, flickering bits of dust through the moonlight. "I...I am so sorry, Sasuke. I-"

Nodding, Sasuke shrugged. "Take care of yourself now. I don't want a raven following me for the rest of my life. Leave the gods to do their business, whatever it is that gods do when they aren't ruining people's lives."

It was only a moment, half a second before Itachi split into a million glittering sparkles on the breeze that his face changed from soul crippling pain to realization.

For, what _did_ gods do when they weren't ruining lives?

He thought he might have a guess.

* * *

She felt dumb. Dumb from the tip of her nose to the ends of her hair, all the day down to her toes. Standing in front of Sasuke's house in the middle of the night long past a reasonable hour to visit with a packed bag on her shoulder and no explanation.

Above the moon looked at her with a sad sort of expression Hinata thought might be pity, and although the stars twinkling looked like they laughed Hinata felt they at least were attempting to muffle it. Still, despite the lack of humanoid audience the embarrassment crawled up her spine, flooding her cheeks with heat, burning her ears to cinders beneath the length of her hair.

"What was I thinking?"

She had not been. Sleeping alone on her futon had simply seemed impossible. There was an itch all over her that demanded attention the longer she held still. Her skin felt full to bursting with feelings too big to name, and of all the things that came to mind Sasuke alone soothed.

So there she stood, naked in her idiocy, eaten up with more shame.

Entering the house without his knowledge would be difficult. She cocked her head at the structure. Two levels, all rooms had windows and she was fairly sure he never bothered with locking the door. Unlocked doors however were not as simple as one would think when it came to Uchihas. His was an invitation and a threat at once. Hinata would go so far as to say both were the same thing to him.

It was what made touching him zap her with electricity that had nothing to do with chidori. The uncertainty of his reaction followed by the confirmation of his welcome. It was an expression she had catalogued through the weeks, purposefully trying not to think about when it made her breath leave her and neck burn. The half smile he offered at her hello, the rapt attention he focused on her when she spoke, all unwavering with that signature Uchiha steadiness that in turn made her sway.

In the end Hinata faced the choice like the shinobi she was, stepping through the doorway with her senses wound tight and her Byakugan just a blink away should her entrance startle the Uchiha into slicing her through by accident.

The thought of ending this entire month long mess with her death seemed so irrationally funny that for a moment she stood at the door with her hand clapped over her mouth and her eyes screwed shut to wrangle the ill timed giggle trying to wiggle up her throat.

What would the gods do, she wondered? How that would ruin their fun.

Cautiously, lest the thoughts of her possible death make her laugh again Hinata examined the silent house, catching the silence punctuated with the sleepy breaths of two children she found curled like kittens in a basket on the couch.

Puzzled she stared for a moment, taking note of their still sticky cheeks, the crusts of dirt that lined their fingernails, and on Sasu's lashes the dried salt of tears.

It had not occurred to her to worry about them while she and Sasuke maneuvered the landmine field that was her family. They had been safe so often in his house on evenings left in the company of ghosts that to think something might have happened shot her through with panic and dampened any amusement that might have rubbed away at her impending sadness.

For the first time it occurred to her that perhaps Sasuke was not home at all. She had seen him dragged away by his fiance after moving to defend her. It did not take much imagination to consider what kind of thank you Hanabi might offer her soon to be husband for such a show of affection, considering the lack of attention he had been giving her of late.

It was Hinata herself who had encouraged Hanabi to give him a chance, after all.

The thought of them, close enough to touch was mind numbing. Chilled by the possibility, goosebumps slid across her body and she shuddered, ignoring to the best of her abilities the ever crumbling divide of her heart within her.

Finding the blanket Sasuke often used when crashing on the couch she tucked the children in as if her sudden chill had more to do with the weather than with heartbreak before turning to the staircase in determination.

Of course he was with Hanabi still. Tomorrow was the eve of their wedding, or should be if he didn't already think they were going to disappear. Perhaps he was attempting a last ditch effort to save them all, to open up to her sister as she had once hoped so desperately he would.

It was such a clear thought, such an obvious thing in her mind that peering into his room to find his bed empty did not surprise her. The bed, made haphazardly loomed flat in the white hue of moonlight, and when Hinata's hand reached out to turn on the lamp on the nightstand she startled to find nothing but air.

This was just unexpected enough to have her focused on the piece of furniture, examining the room for more changes when the click of the bathroom door startled her to turn. Her hands filled with shuriken and Byakugan darkened her face just in time to feel the force of the last Uchiha slamming her hard enough against the wall to crack the plaster at her back.

Rotating red sharingan stared for the length of a breath, his hands on her throat likely able to feel the galloping thing that was her pulse and then Sasuke gasped. "Oh!" Then more sternly, "I could have killed you!"

This was true, although it took him a moment to feel the tickle of the kunai she had pressed between his third and fourth rib and although Hinata didn't say it the innocent blink of her pale eyes transmitted the smugness before her mouth quirked up in what he might have called a smirk.

"You-" Sasuke tried, and stunned to find himself stuttering stepped back abruptly. "What are you doing sneaking around? Just walk like a normal person!"

"I was!" Hinata began, and she had been- for a normal shinobi person. Opening her mouth to point this out did not work because it was at this particular moment that she realized he was not only shirtless, but also in nothing but a towel.

Spinning around sharply had her nearly smacking her head into the wall and with hands over her eyes despite the kunai still in her left she gasped. "I'm so sorry! I- I didn't think you were here- I'll just-"

"Oh. Oh!" Sasuke looked down, rolling his eyes although his own face was heating up to a raging fire. "Stop. Just... just wait a second."

"I... I should have knocked, I don't know what I was-"

"Knocked?" Sasuke scoffed, insulted but unable to articulate to her why. "Since when do you knock?"

"Since I show up in the middle of the night! I'm so sorry-"

"Stop it. Why did you think I wasn't home? Where the hell else would I be?"

Where indeed. Hinata shook her head, face buried in her palms as she tried to shove all the thoughts that had been so concrete in her mind right before she entered his bedroom into the garbage bin of her brain.

"There. Clothed. Stop melting."

"I'm-I'm-" Hinata tried, and all at once she was ten years old, in the presence of the one person she wanted, unable to use words for they were too complex with her mind so full of him.

"You're ridiculous." Sasuke scolded, though affectionately as he turned her around by the shoulders. It was difficult not to say everything gently to her when she peeked at him from between her fingers, face hot enough that he could almost feel it. Shaking his head to try not to focus too much on that he waited a breath before asking. "What's wrong? Why aren't you sleeping?"

Gathering herself up took a moment and a very deep breath that hurt her lungs before releasing it with a sigh. "I...I can't. Tomorrow is...tomorrow I-" she blinked, thinking about what she would have to say to him, the words he would have to give back, the agony that would slice through her.

She had thought that one heart break in a lifetime was hard enough to bear, yet here she was, heading for number two knowingly. She had always thought hearing Naruto turn her down would have been easier if she had known it was going to happen, but now she was starting to think that had been naive.

"Right." Sasuke whispered, letting go of her finally to run a tired hand over his face and through his shower damp hair. "I wasn't counting on sleep tonight either, honestly."

"I...I still have to fold all those cranes, for Hanabi." Hinata offered, thinking of her bag and the bundles of Uchiha and Hyuuga stamped origami paper within. "I've been telling everyone that's what I did all day."

Sasuke watched her as she shifted nervously before him, eyes landing on anything that was not his face. With her distracted he allowed himself a small smile, nodding his head in agreement. "I can help. Do you want tea?"

She should not have been surprised and yet could not help it as she looked back at him wide eyed, scrambling to remember the words required for a reply.

"Oh- I... yes...please."

They ended up on the roof. Inside, the children continued to snore on the couch and although they were shinobi quiet there were not a lot of ways to boil a kettle without some noise. There were more reasons to be on the roof than just keeping quiet for the children however. Up there was the clear unending view of the heavens, star dotted and lit to shining by the unobstructed moon. It allowed for gazing out without having to make eye contact and though both of them felt this was a particularly important selling point neither said so out loud.

"What happened with Sasu and Hina?" Hinata asked finally. The warm cup of tea in her hands soothed the last of the embarrassment of earlier away and sitting side by side it was easier to try talking to him than when his gaze so unshakingly pierced into her.

Sasuke's sigh was heavy, the shake of his head morose. "Hina fell asleep, so I don't know exactly what happened with her, but Sasu..."

The hesitation was not what Hinata expected. A tantrum, perhaps was all she had had in mind. The set of Sasuke's jaw telegraphed it had not been so simple and so she stilled, quieting herself to give him room to voice it.

"He's too clever by half." The smirk that graced his mouth was pained as he watched the stars reflected in his tea cup. "I was always being told that growing up. Now I understand."

With her eyes tracing his features Sasuke had no doubt Hinata was listening and so he took a breath before continuing. "He knows what is going on exactly. I guess... I guess I am a disappointment for his future."

"What? Did... did he say that? I can't imagine why he would-"

"There's plenty of reasons." Sasuke retorted sternly. "Don't pretend otherwise-"

"Look at me." Hinata frowned, motioning to herself. "I'm disinherited, outranked...a...alone." turning sharply back to the heavens and her tea as she breathed out a sigh of her own. "If anyone is going to be disappointed I figured it would be Hina."

"You are not alone." Sasuke frowned back, interested in that particular word on her list of failures. "You have your sister, your father, your family-"

"No, you're right. I don't... I don't mean that kind of alone." Slowly Hinata slid a finger around and around the rim of her tea cup. "I mean that Sasu understands a lot, and he is quite clever. But... that's what that phrase means, yes?" Daring a glance in his direction confirmed his unfaltering stare, brightening her cheeks to shining.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I..I mean that, that's what people were saying when they told you, you were too clever. It meant you understood so much but perhaps not everything. How could you, how could Sasu? He is a child. He doesn't know all the reasons you had to become you."

Sasuke smirked, "You excuse my behavior too much."

"No." Quick as a slap Hinata turned to him, brow furrowed. "No I don't. You made mistakes. Horrible ones, but Sasuke that's... that's what they were. Mistakes. Sasu can't...he won't understand that. We can hardly fathom the mistakes we have watched ourselves make, how could a child understand himself being anything other than perfect as he grows up? He doesn't see all the other things he has to be proud of or how so many people admire you- him."

Holding perfectly still Sasuke watched as she fumbled with her tea, nearly spilling the thing before putting it down at her side, rubbing her hands along her knees for a moment before tucking her hair behind her ears, revealing the superheated pink tips to accompany the growing haze of crimson along her neck and cheeks.

 _Is she...?_ Sasuke's brain froze as a thought slid miraculously into his mind. _Why is she blushing?_

"I am rambling." Hinata stated as though it were a discovery. "S-sorry. Did... did he do okay? Is that why they're asleep on the couch? Did he lose his temper?"

Uncertain now, Sasuke bit his cheek and examined his tea as though it were very interesting again. "Yes, although eventually he calmed down. They will likely need baths in the morning."

Choosing not to mention the raven and the subsequent chaos that ensued was a mode of self preservation. There was no way he would be capable of sharing what he and Itachi had discussed.

"That's all right. It will wake them up before breakfast." Hinata tugged one of the origami sheets loose, studying the Uchiha fan and the Byakugan flame that dotted it before beginning the folding of a new crane. "Shall I make miso in the morning? There's still some rice left, and cherry tomatoes."

Careful not to show his surprise Sasuke took a sheet of paper himself, following her folds out of the corner of his eye for a moment before allowing himself to speak. "...you're going to be here in the morning?" He had not expected this small gift, had anticipated that perhaps the only time he would see her in the next day would be when he sought her out on purpose, like one would search for the edge of a cliff when suicidal.

"I...I had hoped..." Hinata froze, with her legs stretched before her she tapped her shoes together rhythmically. "I...I just want to pretend it's another day."

Just one more day. Just one.

"What about-" Sasuke almost began, there was a list as long as he was tall of people that he couldn't understand her choosing to ignore on what she thought was her last day. Her sister, her father, Gaara of the Sands, Kiba and Shino, all the endless parade of people who would be arriving at her house for the party to celebrate her sister's wedding, including Tenten, Lee and Ino, her old teacher Kurenai.

And yet she waited, looking at him as though expecting a reprimand although all he managed in the end was, "I can pretend."

It had been what he had been wishing for anyway.

* * *

"Where have you stashed him?"

The thunder cloud that manifested ripped and tattered with the lightning and thunder within it's domain. To the naked it eye it expanded like a gray blue bruise and from it, melting like a droplet of water from an icicle Lord Susa appeared, shimmering with the electric heat of his fury.

Lady Ama, Goddess of the Sun continued her serene sitting. Her skin so often mottled with lava and the cracks of molten stone now shone as bright and smooth as the sun at midday. From her hair the roan red and crimson tones of anger had subdued themselves to an otherworldly strawberry blonde more akin to threaded gold, the same thread which she now used to sew the stars into the tapestry of the heavens.

"What's this?" She inquired, glancing over her elegant shoulder faintly smiling. "Brother. I did not expect your visit."

"You counted on it." Susa hissed, pupils expanding until of his eyes so perfect in their almond shape turned a horrible black blue with no white. They were as the heart of the ocean, unforgiving and merciless. "Where have you put my Hyuuga sparrow?"

Ama smiled some more, showing tiny perfect pearls for teeth as she glowed. "Ah, the sparrow. Yes, I do believe my fox may have caught such a thing." A wave of her hand cracked like timber in a roaring fire and a cage gilded in gold and hanging by a silver thread into the endlessness of space swung slowly like a hypnotic charm. Inside it a lump of feathers breathed in and out in feeble little gasps.

Susa's teeth so long and jagged hid behind his full kissable lips as he examined the cage, holding back the trembling ferocity inside himself just barely beneath his skin. It flickered however, visible like veins on pale flesh, the thump of his power blooming and fading in purple, yellow and green bruises over his exposed limbs..

"I cannot imagine that Tsuku will be pleased to hear that you have hounded his creature right past death and into the afterlife. What made you shove him into such a tight box?" Lady Ama turned to him expectantly with sewing needle raised above her head where a star was beginning to be born from the threaded knot of her hair.

Lord Susa opened his mouth, words nearly escaped in hissing bites but at the last second he smiled, wide as a shark on a crippled thing and all of a sudden the thundering rain, the roaring strikes of lightning and his tempestuous cloud faded away.

"You know how I am, Sister." Susa drawled easily. "I like breaking things."

"Not Tsuku's things, usually." Ama turned to him, the needle in her hand looking more like a weapon every second despite the tiny point at the tip of the metal. "What are you up to, Susa?"

"So suspicious always." Susa replied easily, stepping towards the cage to examine the Neji sparrow more closely. "Why must I be up to something?"

"You did not even come to gloat when the girl's heart cracked loud enough to echo through the realms." Ama continued, as if thinking to herself and not conversing with him. Gently she tapped her bottom lip with the threaded needle.

"That is because I am an elegant winner, darling Sister."

"Oh please." Lady Ama's laugh echoed through the heavens in the ripples of soon to be morning sunlight. "Don't you understand? Her heart is breaking because she loves him. His heart is breaking because he loves her. All that needs to happen now...is a confession."

Lord Susa pursed his mouth, and though his eyes remained focused on the sparrow caged before him they were not calm. The tempest he had entered with now raged within him, chaotic as the swirling pull of a hurricane.

"And," Lady Ama continued, "With your sparrow unable to convince her to say no...What an elegant loser I hope you are as well."

"You are always so hasty." Susa whispered, turning away from the little bird. "Always celebrating before the finish line. Keep the bird, I'm sure Tsuku will be interested to know why you have him once this is all over."

This perked Ama's attention in a way that nothing else had. Turning to him the needle in her hand so sharp pressed to her lip hard enough to draw a single round crimson pearl of blood.

"You would not dare break the agreement and call him. We signed a contract. It is binding."

"Certainly, I won't." Lord Susa clasped his hands behind his back, wandering back the way he came. "Don't worry, Sister. Clearly you have the advantage. Too bad for me."

No sooner had the lightning struck to whisk him away than Lady Ama's skin thinned to rice paper, the flooding lava pulsing beneath it turning her eyes to black embers, the threaded needle in her hand forgotten as she clenched her long fingers tighter and tighter. With her lip smeared red with her blood and the crimson stain starting between her needle pierced fingers she terrified, enough that even her fox cowered at the sight of her.

"You did well to gather that sparrow. He feigned carelessness badly."

"My... my pleasure is to serve you, Lady Ama." The fox kept his head lowered and nose pointed low even if his eyes strained to keep her in his sights at all times.

"We cannot lose this bet." Lady Ama turned to the sparrow, studying the pale eye that opened to look upon her in silence and contemplation too human for it's avian face. "Tsuku hardly speaks to me as it is, since I used one of his favorites for my cause. If Susa wins... it will all have been for nothing."

The fox did not make the mistake of thinking she expected a reply. Watching silently he winced as her hand slid through the cage bars, and although the bird did not have the strength to raise its head let alone move from her the feeble twitch of his wings gave the appearance of terror nonetheless.

"I will do everything that must be done to preserve this peace." Lady Ama breathed out softly, and the heat of her breath scorched at the edges of the sparrows tail feathers so that he chirped out softly.

Inside the bird Neji did not bother trying to convince himself he saw goodness in the Lady Ama's face. No, there was no room for goodness. There was simply, and terrifyingly only space for determination.

* * *

"How many is that?"

Sasuke leaned back, and the smell of his freshly washed hair floated towards her on the breeze, making her breath catch and her hands fumble with the last fold on the crane she held.

"With the one you're finishing..." He muttered, rummaging at her back where the basket he had brought up from the living room now sat, propped against her so as to not roll down the inclined roof. "...eight hundred and-"

"Only eight hundred?" Hinata sighed, dismay weighing heavy on her shoulders. The moon had risen to shine gloriously in the heavens, so bright it was difficult to look it straight on without wincing. The quiet had gone from early evening murmurs that the village in the distance still shouted across the expanse of the woodland to the rustling silence of deep night.

She had not thought she would grow tired. And yet her limbs ached with the thought of continuing, her eyelids heavy. Rubbing the gritty discomfort from her eye she tried to sigh again and only succeeded in yawning. Beside her Sasuke watched, cataloguing each movement with an unhealthy attention he could not help. Smiling faintly he fiddled with the crane in his hands and shrugged against the cool night breeze. "I could finish, you should sleep."

"No." Hinata shook her head, slapping gently at her cheeks to snap herself back to wakefulness. "I need to take these back to the house..." Sadly she hugged her knees, using her arms as a pillow as she gazed back at him. "Do you know what they're for?"

It was too difficult resisting the urge to touch her when she looked at him with her eyes soft, framed only by her hair and the tender shape of her mouth pursed with words. A small shake of his head was all he could manage, although he thought there was something to do with a wish granted at a thousand cranes.

"I don't remember who told me the story first. Perhaps my mother." Hinata lifted her chin on a palm and studied the moon, so close to being full it looked barely chipped. "But, the story goes that when the Lord of the Moon the God Tsuku saw the power of our Byakunga he was so taken with us that he promised one wish every time a Hyuuga married to make certain that the eyes he favoured never died out. The other gods were upset by this. Wishes were things granted after much peril. One had to fight dragons, cross labyrinths and the like in the service of a god to be granted a wish, and yet here was Tsuku handing them out as wedding gifts."

With the moon itself shining so brightly, turning her skin to glowing luminessence and her eyes lanterns there was no doubt in Sasuke's mind why the Lord Tsuku had been taken with the Hyuuga. Holding still was all he could do to keep the pain in his chest from showing on his face, and still his breath hitched as he tried and failed to not ache to touch her.

"So, from what I remember... the Lord Tsuku told his siblings that he would give the Hyuuga a task to accomplish for every wish, and to the Hyuuga he requested one thousand paper cranes at every wedding." Hinata smiled then, examining the crane in her hand with its Uchiha fan studded face and Hyuuga flame spotted wings. "A tedious task, but not difficult as far as god chores go."

"He almost sounds...tolerable." Sasuke muttered, drawing her gaze back to him. Hinata's laugh was tired and sad as she rested her head on her knees again.

"Lord Tsuku, you mean?"

"Hn."

"He does, doesn't he..." She mused, closing her eyes despite her best intentions. "I suppose that's why it's just a fairy tale."

"Yet your family still folds the cranes every time?" Sasuke pressed his hands hard against the shingles beneath him to keep from tucking the wild splash of dark hair slicing across her cheek behind her ear.

"It's tradition." Hinata mumbled, face relaxing as her breathing slowed. "Just tradition."

In the quiet Sasuke studied her with her eyes closed, the rise and fall of her side as she breathed, the little sound of discomfort that escaped her as she nestled deeper into her arms tugging faintly at something knife sharp anchored in his navel.

"Enough of this." He grumbled, shoving himself to his feet and startling her to attention. "You need to sleep."

"But-" Hinata began, voice catching in an "eep!" of shock as he grabbed her hands and instead of pulling her to her feet heaved her right onto his shoulder like a sack.

"S-s-Sasuke! What are you-?!"

"Doesn't matter how polite you are, the stubborn Hyuuga just comes with the genetics. You're falling asleep on the roof." Sasuke muttered, aware that her wriggling had more to do with her shock than an attempt to dislodge herself from his shoulder carry down the roof to his bedroom window. He had no doubt if she truly wanted to be released he would be in a world of pain rather quickly.

"I.. I wasn't going to- I can get down my- AH!"

The leap from the roof was startling when one did not have view of the coming edge and although Sasuke made the jump from roof into the open window look easy it still made her leave her stomach somewhere on the gutters for a moment longer than was comfortable.

"Now," He continued sternly, throwing her as gently as he could into the empty bed. "Sleep."

Hinata stayed flopped where he left her. Hands pressed to her red face she breathed in punched out little gasps before squeaking her protest.

"If those were words..." Sasuke began, standing on the window sill to grab at the things they had left behind on his roof. "...they weren't any I understood."

"I need to take the cranes we finished home, I can-" Hinata tried instead, stopping abruptly as he settled beside her with the crane filled basket between them.

"I'll take them." Studying one particularly floppy origami crane in his hands that he thought might have been Hina's doing was easier than looking at her to see confusion flicker on her face. "You can go to sleep."

Slowly Hinata straightened, hope flickering in her eyes in what she prayed wasn't as loud a broadcast as her heart hammering away in her ears. "H...here?"

"I will be out-" Sasuke started, stunned by the implication he had not thought he was making and scrambling to correct it he stood, heading for the closet where a sweater and shoes would give him the right to jump out the window and out of the vicinity as soon as possible.

"Ah...are... are you sure you don't mind me-?" Hinata never finished. The shake of his head was firm and with the sweater ripped over his head he was already halfway out the window before he paused to look back at her for one more second.

"This way... you can be here in the morning. Sasu would like that."

"A..all right." Hinata acquiesced softly, watching as he dropped from the window with a nod, the bag he had tossed the cranes into in hand before letting her shoulders slump. This was what she had hoped for, and yet even when he said what she had expected it still stung to not hear it was Sasuke himself who would be glad to have her there to wake to.

Her disappointment was not unlike his own when he returned. Finding her asleep upon climbing through his own window made him feel more alone that walking through the village with no one beside him.

Curled around his pillows, with her hair a wild spray of shadow on the covers she rooted his feet to the ground at his bedside, slowing his breath down to near silence.

 _How am I supposed to say no to you?_

Uncertain, yet sure that he could not do anything else Sasuke lowered himself onto the bed on the other side. With her eyes closed he could trace the way her lashes fell against her cheek, the pouting relaxation of her mouth mid sleep.

Inside his heart groaned, the catastrophic wound that would slay it ticking away at the last bit of his time, like a battle scarred warrior on his last legs. Pressing a hand to his chest only helped to remind him he was not bleeding out. And with his eyes closed to soothe the pain he missed the flicker of her lashes as they looked at him, a similar agony etched on her face.

 _How am I supposed to not want you?_

Neither had the answer, but then they had been trained since young to do what seemed impossible. It was in their blood.

* * *

 _ **This story is very long.**  
 **There. I said it.**  
 **I'm trying pretty hard to just...finish. Forgive me if my editing is literally nonexistent. I am not particularly pleased with a lot of things in this chapter, I usually would spend some time rewriting several scenes. But I kind of just want to get to the end now, so I am letting a few things slide for the sake of actually finishing.**_

 _ **Thank you so much for everyone reading, for reviewing for all the lovely support thrown my way through this very very long process.**_

 _ **We're nearing the end.**_

 _ **Much love,**_

 _ **inky**_


	26. Chapter 26

_"Won't you pretend with me?"_

In the quiet of the night her whisper was a thunderstorm. Complete with rain as her tears poured. They slid in rivers down the side of her face and he memorized the path they took, sliding between her lips. On her side she looked back at him, curled among the sheets that smelled of two impossible children. The darkness of her hair spilled like the night sky, taking the sunlight from the summer day.

He would have reached out for her, if he didn't fear he might not stop at a caress. He might have even said something in reply. But there was a noose tying tighter around his neck with every breath as he looked at her so when his silence and the darkness of his eyes were the only reply she reached out.

Pale fingers smoothed outward, pushing locks of his dark hair to reveal his brow. The soft sniff she offered as explanation made her voice all the more damp.

 _"Please Sasuke, just for one more day."_

Let's pretend.

Eventually he had closed his eyes for seeing her had been too difficult when the sadness glared so brightly. And with his cheek pressed to her open palm he had felt the first throes of what he had never realized was true agony.

 _"Don't be scared of tomorrow."_ He might have been soothing her or himself. There was so little he could say, so little he could offer. Just the brittle pieces of his already wounded heart. Selfishness had never suited him, but neither did succumbing to a battle and this was the ultimate victory he would have to bow out of. If he could hold off for one more day...

Just one more day.

Of course he would.

So he held her tighter as she cried, and tried desperately not to let her see inside where stars were born and died as the pleasure of holding her turned to pain and back to pleasure again.

* * *

 _It was a decadent day. From the start there was the buttery melt of the early morning sun across his face, hugging him to wakefulness with her breath to caress his neck and her eyes quiet and calm to look back at him upon waking._

 _Softly, whispered like she would offer a kiss Hinata's mouth moved. "Good morning."_

 _And so it began._

 _There was a whirlwind of wrangling children hyper and giggling into baths, of packing bento boxes, of eating breakfast all together laughing at Sasu's taciturn frowns._

 _There was the touch of Hinata's hand on his back as she put on her shoes, the scent of her soap as heady as the lemongrass outside his window whispering on the breeze. There was Hina's hand gripping his and Sasu tickling at her ribs and the ruckus of getting out the door._

 _And all the while Sasuke told himself he didn't want more._

 _Before the sun could scorch the earth they wandered through the shadows of the trees, tugging off their shoes to run barefoot in the leaves. When the ground turned to softest moss, Hina sighed in delight and sprawled to look above._

 _Indulging was what they had planned, and so they ended up together looking up at the arms of the trees all close enough to touch yet shyness kept them ill at ease always just one inch from gripping the other's branchy hand._

 _"They look like rivers of light." Hina whispered, and with all their dark heads together on the moss Sasuke and Hinata and Sasu agreed. The patterns of the canopy meandered like rivers softly rustled by the breeze. "I love it here." Hina's voice said again, and although no one replied, like before everyone agreed._

 _Through the walk they gathered fistfuls of fruit. Berries in a myriad of purples and blues, turning to crimson when chewed. With the stains on their lips the children were dolls, bright eyed and bright lipped happy to a fault._

 _Even the sweet rot of the forest floor was pleasant to the nose, rising up with their steps as the sun also rose. Radiant in stripes the star burned brightly, it's breath promising a syrupy thick heatwave through the day, filled with lazy buzzing insects and wishes for cool lakes._

 _"I remember long ago... coming here on a hot day and finding that flowers bloomed, even though the summer was so late." Hinata had whispered as they climbed the familiar paths to the hazelnut trees. "They were like..." Her voice had paused, stunned to silence as her eyes took in the sight not of violet like before, but of white._

 _They were everywhere, spread out thin like the sprinkling of a light snow . Snowdrops had bloomed enmasse, rustled by the wind as the children gasped. "It's like winter," Sasu whispered, awe in his voice. Hina was first to make the choice. "Let's go!" With her hand in his she pulled to run through the frost that released the smell of nectar sweet as a kiss._

 _Hand in hand the children rustled through this new hazel grove, lifting clouds of disturbed bees and the golden flecks of pollen through the trees._

 _"Sasuke..." Beside him Hinata shivered despite the growing warmth, the brush of her hand against his for a brief moment lifting goosebumps along his skin._

 _"Do you think they will remember? Do you think...they might..." Whatever else she was going to say she choked back, shaking her head as he waited though he knew what she wondered._

 _The truth was he hoped not. It would only bring pain._

* * *

Hanabi had chosen to have her breakfast in her room, or so Gaara was told upon rising in the morning. This came from a maid that bowed low and did not rise to meet his gaze. Frowning without her face to see his expression Gaara puzzled at this bit of information.

"I assume the rest of the family is downstairs." He offered, hoping the maid would give him more. Thankfully she straightened, her still features offering little clues despite her nod.

"Yes, Lord Kazekage. Lord Hiashi hosts them now. He let me know that if you would prefer to break fast in the privacy of your own chambers that we should accommodate that as you desired."

"Oh." Gaara breathed, glancing back at his room and the lack of familiarity in it. Though he had been staying there for many days it was largely where he slept and where he had on a handful of occasions written letters, nothing more.

This would not have been an issue, were it not for the feel of floating away that had nagged him through the night and disrupted his sleep. He was untethered, cut loose by the pained expression on Hinata's face and the equally stinging words which she had delivered with such gentleness the night before. What he wanted was something solid to hold on to. A familiar face to smile at him.

Perhaps a pair of pretty pale eyes.

"Please, would you be so kind as to ask Hanabi-sama if I might join her? There is...something urgent I would like to discuss." It was difficult to lie, seeing as he had never bothered much in hiding his motives and actions growing up but the Hyuuga had a way of being accommodating about anything polite and so the maid nodded. "As you wish, Lord Kazekage."

It was hardly a handful of minutes before he was being escorted into Hanabi's room, lit brightly by the fury of a glorious summer sun.

Maids wandered through the chamber, opening windows to let the call of birds sing song through the curtains, arranging a table and chairs onto the porch overlooking the gardens.

From behind the tall painted divider came Hanabi's voice. "I see you were clever enough to avoid going downstairs if you could help it."

"Oh!" Gaara spun around as a slip of something that looked like a lace trimmed nightgown was flung over the top of the divider, insinuating a lack of clothing on the person to whom he was speaking. "Y..yes. Well, I can't... I can't take full credit seeing as you thought of the idea first, I just acknowledged it."

"Hopefully Hinata is sleeping in and isn't already downstairs. The maids said no one answered at her door when they knocked."

With his back turned Gaara didn't have to hide the flinch of worry that troubled his face as Hanabi stepped out. At her back a maid arranged the simple sash of Uchiha crimson that wrapped around her waist. It was working clothes she was in. There was much to oversee and although others could look to it for her Hanabi had made the clever choice to make herself extremely busy during the day. Aunts and Uncles had a way of speaking their minds when they thought you had a moment to listen and she planned on not giving that impression if she could help it.

"I believe... I don't believe Hinata is home." Gaara offered finally, glancing nervously over his shoulder at the sound of Hanabi approaching at his back.

Behind her the maid bowed, despite Hanabi having forgotten about her before turning to gather a tray brought forth with the scents of rice, miso and steaming tea rising from it in plumes of white.

"Why do you say that?" Hanabi's face had smoothed to porcelain calmness. Despite the plain style of her navy blue yukata and the red sash smeared across it like blood there was her usual elegance about her. Pale faced and bright eyed she fixed the Kazekage with a steady look that left no room for lying and Gaara was glad. He had had no hope of trying, Hanabi would see through it like she could see through walls.

"She told me last night to look after you for her." Gaara didn't mention this was not the first time such a request had been made by her elder sister. "To not leave you to your family alone."

For an insane moment Hanabi had the terrifying feeling that her sister was gone, never to be found. Those were the words of a good bye, and although her hand fluttered to her stomach where a chasm felt to be opening wide her voice remained calm as she asked the only logical question despite the illogical answer she was soon to get back. "Is...is she at the hospital? Even today?"

The Kazekage could only offer up a shake of the head that left more questions than answers in it's wake.

* * *

 _"Yield!"_

 _Sasu's screech was half defiance half delight, limbs all tight to his body, face pink from sun and from a run and from the laughter that threatened to overwhelm him._

 _Withdrawing her hands for a moment to hear his answer Hinata waited, poised to strike again at the ribs so easily manipulated to bring him joy._

 _"No!" He finally dared, and Hinata gasped in admiration and horror. "How you must enjoy torture!"_

 _"Tch." From behind them Sasuke watched, leaning on a tangle of hazelnut roots with Hina sprawled across his lap like a lazy cat. "He will wet himself, have mercy."_

 _"The Hyuuga are merciless!" Hinata half laughed, running her spider hands up Sasu's back and forcing him to arch as he giggled. "Only victory!"_

 _"Only pee." Sasuke drawled, though through heavy lidded eyes he watched in rapture as she laughed, setting the world to shining with nothing but her smile._

 _"Ick." Hina sighed, picking petals from the snowdrops by her face, half buried in the tufts of summer blooms she was more fairy than human race. Gently Sasuke ran a hand through her dark hair, feeling the pang of misery at the thought of never seeing her again._

 _"If Sasu is ticklish..." Hinata's voice drew his gaze like kunai to a target, snapping all of the midday heat from Sasuke's bones as he tensed._

 _She sat on her heels as she examined his stillness, and despite the slight predatory tinge to the pale gleam of her eye she was still a sight to behold wreathed in flowers, draped in summer light and with the last lingering touch of a smile on her pink mouth._

 _It was a challenge to grapple with the urge to shake his head, to shove himself to his feet and put distance between himself and her pitiless fingers._

 _"I don't know what you're talking about." He finally replied, eyes crinkling at the corners with disdain that lacked all sting. "Perhaps I grew out of it."_

 _"Perhaps." Softly said Hinata turned to Sasu, as if sizing him up, looking for all the ways they resembled each other for assurance._

 _To Sasuke's surprise, it was Hina's fingers that found him first, sliding sneakily up the inside of his shirt along the scars and muscles of his vocation to his ribs._

 _The rasp of a cry that left his lips was damning, the twist of his body more wild than usual for such an elegant shinobi. "Hina! Hina, no!"_

 _It was all they needed to hear for all three smiles to turn to him with ill intentions. "You can run," Hinata warned, and he knew it was true even before she finished for on her face her Byakugan traced lace patterns to her skin, "But you can't hide."_

 _What delightful torture, what relished agony._

* * *

It had not occurred to Hiashi how much he valued the privacy afforded from living with such a small household until the household multiplied in size. The bustle and rush of servant feet on hardwood, the ever hissing heat of the kitchens, the voices unfamiliar to his ear in his usually quiet home all grated and stung.

Perhaps that had to do with the fact that like a piece of sandpaper in his shoe Grandfather ached to harm.

"They cannot hide from me forever. That younger daughter of yours might hug the shadowy corners of the house to remain unscathed, cowardly as I have never thought to think of her, but the other?" Grandelder smiled a thin lipped smile dry as the bones he would one day become. "The other will have to face me eventually. She may as well drag that fiance of hers here now and let us be done with it."

Hiashi drew a long rattling breath filled with his displeasure, studying the strange figure his Grandfather painted kneeling on the floor of the banquet hall as though it were a receiving room for an emperor. It did not escape his notice that he was flanked by other Hyuuga, those too quiet to speak their annoyed minds.

"The ladies of this household have a wedding that begins it's celebration tonight. We have guests arriving that need to be housed in the village, and a dinner celebration to hang the cranes on the sakura tree. I cannot divert their attention."

"What task is it that keeps Hinata so occupied?" Grandfather's face remained ever smooth, shadowed only by the slanted drip of light from the garden at the edge of the engawa. "I hear that she is in fact nowhere to be found."

A flicker passed over Hiashi's face, muted at rapid speed but still too slow for the all seeing eyes of an ancient Byakugan.

"So it is true." Grandfather's lips lifted then, like he had been given a compliment. "You do not know where she is."

And it was a compliment, in a way. He had forseen her failure, and now it seemed his prophecy was at play.

* * *

 _"Do not hold your breath, do not hesitate. Better to fail than to burn yourself." Sasuke instructed._

 _Sasu stood on a stump of a tree long fallen. The pond glittered and glistened below. Morning had dripped into midday and midday to afternoon. The glare of the sun was damning and even with their spectacular eyes they all squinted as Hinata and Hina dug the sand from the pond's shore to make a hole before gathering sticks and stones._

 _In it their supper would steam among the coals, once the fire burned itself down. But first it had to be lit and Sasu faced the timber with a determined set to his jaw._

 _"Breathe in halfway through the hand signs, and then blow." Sasuke's hand on his back was strangely soothing and the boy began to twist his hands, tracing out the unlocking power of his own body._

 _On either side the girls paused their digging to watch with open expectant expressions. With a huff Sasu blew._

 _It was a tiny flame, a thing made fierce and blue despite its smallness and although none of the tinder was able to catch Sasuke's eyes widening in surprise and the start of a smile were more than enough._

 _"I... I did it." Sasu gasped, ignoring to the best of his abilities the subtle little scratch in his throat despite his hand going to his neck as if to quench the flame that burned it._

 _"Sasu that was excellent!" Hinata clapped, and although Hina sat quietly the wrinkle of her nose and her crinkly eyed smile made Sasu beam._

 _"Not bad. I was expecting a mouthful of smoke." Sasuke mused, earning a wild kick that didn't land from Sasu's small feet._

 _"Tsk. Don't tease." Hinata scolded, watching all the while as Sasuke's hands flipped through the seals in rapid succession, like a dance._

 _The breath he took was gentle, the release of the flame soft and through the heatwaves she watched as he kissed the fire to life with no fuss._

 _It was dangerous looking at him for longer than a beat. Even just to see him smiling made her body overheat. He was fire warm and burning, tempting when her future promised rain. Yet despite the wrong in longing her mind still whispered the desire to let it burn, burn, burn her up with him._

* * *

They asked all through the day.

Hanabi kept her head poised as she was stripped down, the white towels used to wipe the sweat from her body dipped in the fragrant perfumes her sister had picked out for her for the wedding preparations.

There were even bottles specifically chosen by Hinata for the wedding day, and the wedding night, the task that should have been their mother's.

They sat in lacquered trays upon the shining red hue of the polished wood floor, reflecting the light of lanterns being lit already, ahead of the coming dusk.

And still they asked, despite the growing uncertainty in her voice with every answer.

"Will Hinata-sama be needing her kimono fitted?" It was an innocent question, offered by a maid that Hanabi felt she had been seeing through her life as she grew up. The soft eyes of the woman were like the horizon from her bedroom window, familiar as the very halls of the Hyuuga House.

But the innocence ended there. Of course Hinata needed her kimono fitted and prepared. She would be at the house shortly. Guests would be arriving with the setting of the sun and in the splash of pink and orange and red of the heavens they would pass the cranes to the servants on the ladders, hanging them from strings already dangling from the branches.

It still stung that the origami had had to be dug out of Hinata's bedroom, opened with Hanabi's permission when they could not be found anywhere else. On the made up futon, with it's smooth unwrinkled lines the bag of origami sat alone and abandoned.

"Of course the kimono for my sister will need to be fitted." Hanabi snarled, raising her chin as the maids began to drape the elaborate furisode over her shoulders. "What silly questions you ask. Do you not see there is no time for such dalliance?"

"Of course, Hanabi-sama. I apologize."

Around her the kimonos for the next few days fluttered in the lazy wind that trailed through the house, passing the gaping holes where the walls had been removed to offer some semblance of coolness. Her eyes remained ever fixated on the Uchiha emblazoned black that would be her final robe.

The crimson and white fan glared back, and as hands prodded and touched her, arranging fabric all around all at once something tightened and tightened ever more intensely in her throat.

A knock had the half dozen maids pausing, turning to look in the direction of the hall where the door was opened and the Lord Kazekage stood, hands folded at his back. "I apologize for interrupting, I was just-" He paused, startled to see Hanabi's eyes flooded with tears held back by sheer will alone, her mouth trembling with the effort of remaining still on the footstool as the maids worked.

Firmly, and with a tone none of the maids had heard before the Kazekage stepped aside, motioning to the doorway. "Please leave us."

In the silence of their departure the sound of voices drifted in with the heat. Her orders had been given with accuracy and like a commander in battle Hanabi's soldiers were busily setting up the tables for the dinner, arranging the seating, organizing the musicians, instructing the already arrived family on where to be. Gaara alone knew of the one task she had set to another servant, whispering it into his ear.

 _"Please go to the Uchiha grounds, and check on Uchiha-san. Should you see him, ask him to contact me. Let the Lord Kazekage know when you return. He will know where to find me."_

It was unfortunate that the news he had to offer was that of an empty Uchiha house.

As Gaara closed the door the sound of the flute player warming up trilled to drown out the rest of the chaos, harmonizing with the mewl that escaped Hanabi's throat as she buried her face in her hands.

"Hanabi." Softly whispered, her name on his lips only managed to make her shoulders shake and with his touch on her elbow she stepped down from the fitting stool to the safety of the wood floor.

"This is not right." Arms wrapped around her Gaara shook his head, smoothing out his palm along her back to feel the shuddering gasps that rankled through her body. "The runner returned with no news. I don't know where Sasuke Uchiha is. You must reconsider, you must cancel this."

"Stop." Hanabi's voice left her mouth savagely despite it's frailness. "I cannot. You know I cannot."

"No, I do not." Gaara's grip on her shoulders tightened, forcing her to look up. "Tell me. Tell me why you cannot." And although it was for her his worry reigned there was also something personal in the way he demanded answers, sparking panic in her like a fire.

"Because," stumbling back a step she turned, only to be assaulted immediately by the stretched Uchiha kimono that would soon be hers. "Because Sasuke always comes through at the last minute, and if I give in Grandfather will think it is his doing."

"Hanabi, that is hardly-"

"Because, my Clan is counting on me- all of my family, our reputation-"

" _Hanabi._ "

"Because I gave my word, and I'm scared and I'm not- I cannot back down... I am Hyuuga." Desperate for him to understand she turned, unprepared for the expression of pain on his face, the crack of feeling spreading until he turned resolutely towards the gardens.

Listening to their breathing one would have thought they had sparred, the electric tang of danger coated Hanabi's tongue to confirm the thought.

"If..." Gaara began, voice thick in a way Hanabi did not recognize, "If you reconsidered...if I were to..." He stopped, green eyes shifting to look at her once more.

Caught in the flood of his sudden undivided attention, with his armor down and the flicker of his gaze to her mouth for implication Hanabi froze.

Breathless she stared, and when he shifted she scrambled backwards.

"No."

As though slapped Gaara balked, shaking visibly. "...Hanabi..." Pleadingly, temptingly he whispered, "Please."

The tears flooded once more so her vision swam, chest heaving she pressed her hand to her mouth, barring the words she wanted to say inside.

Slowly, for her legs could no longer hold her weight she lowered herself down, nesting in the pools of silk and pristine cotton as she struggled to breathe.

"She's my sister, Gaara... She's my _sister_."

But where she was, no one knew.

* * *

 _"Perhaps we should go."_

 _He whispered it into the curve of her ear, when the children's eyes were busy elsewhere. Standing so close she felt the heat of his breath, the tickle of it making her shiver. The sky had started to dim, but only minutely. There were hours still. One or two at least, and though the anxiety had begun to eat away at her insides Hinata shook her head. Turning to look at him had them nearly nose to nose, and although she should have pulled back she did not._

 _"Not yet. Not yet, please."_

 _Together they had spent the whole day. The world outside did not matter, with each other close they held sway, distracting from sadness and worries until they faded away._

 _As the heat began ebbing, and the fire burned down, with the steaming fish pulled from the coals still smoking hot they had sat on the soft grass that tickled their feet. They had shared rice from one bowl that tasted sweet._

 _"Catch me, catch me!" Hina squealed, finally bored of drowsing after their last meal and off Sasu had taken as they danced through the wood, sending echoes of their laughter loud simply because they could._

 _"How much longer?" He wanted to know when he would have to suffer and when she would say no. Awkwardly Hinata shrugged her shoulders, turning to run after the kids._

 _"I am not sure, just...just some more..." Whatever else she said was lost as she took off , releasing snowdrop petals in a mess as she ran through them. Ahead the children danced through the beams of light, twisting and dodging the sinewy tendrils of the hazelnut trees deeper into the woodland._

 _"Hinata." He called out too softly for her to hear, although she turned, catching her tears with the sunlight so they glittered like jewels._

 _All day long she had been smiling, laughing, humming through the day and now he knew that she was bursting with the pain._

 _Like a bolt of lightning wrecking the earth with it's touch, the moment had crept up on him._

 _"Hinata, wait."_

 _It was time._

* * *

The Hokage's arrival caused a stir. Partly because his extremely pregnant wife drew the attention of all the females in search of husbands, and because at his other side was the Kazekage of Sand which everyone knew was the first guest to arrive and who no one had yet seen.

Sake and wine were already being served by subdued faced servants throughout the gardens. And as the sun began to set so then did the lanterns begin to shine. Hanging among the lanterns round and pale that decorated the sakura tree were the cranes, an endless flock of them swaying in the cooling breeze.

There beneath the tree Naruto eyed the crowd, smiling hello at the ambassadors from neighboring villages, wealthy contract families that Hinata in particular had done well by and who now respected the village and Hyuuga enough to attend a personal event.

Although it did not feel personal standing there beneath the cherry blossoms that perfumed the air. Too many faces were unfamiliar, despite the Byakugan white eyes. Only those of Kiba and Shino, Kurenai, Lee and Tenten were comforting. Soon enough Tsunade too would arrive, Kakashi in tow and all the other rabble that would make this less of a chore.

"You look sick." Naruto muttered at Gaara out of the corner of his mouth as he smiled and nodded at another VIP guest.

"Naruto." Sakura scolded at his side, flapping the fan in her hand tiredly.

"It's all right." Gaara soothed softly, mouth downturned. "I know I do. I wish I didn't."

"If I were you I would probably feel the same way. This...is intimidating, even for a Hokage." Naruto continued, rubbing circles absently along Sakura's back. "Where is Hinata? Why isn't she with you to buffer this?"

"She must be with Hanabi, Naruto." Sakura cut in before Gaara could come up with something to say. "Hanabi doesn't have a lot of friends, she must be working Hinata to the bone lately."

"I do not know where Hinata is, in fact." Gaara's voice held no malice, but neither any warmth. "She has not been here all day."

Slowly, Naruto and Sakura turned to look at him. Neither able to keep the confusion and growing horror from their faces.

The hissed whisper that came out of Naruto was a struggle, his voice shaking. " _What_?"

Unable to look at him Gaara looked instead to the engawa where Hanabi would soon be entering the fray. No sooner had he thought this than the youngest Hyuuga daughter stepped out from the opened banquet hall, chin raised and striking as she always was.

There was no droop to her shoulders to suggest the kimono was weighed with her dismay, but Gaara had grown practiced at reading Hanabi's limbs, the toss of her head, the quirk of her mouth and even from afar he could see the effort put into her smile.

"Here comes the bride!" A shout went up and clapping ensued as she bowed her thanks and welcome. Following on the heels of the applause however were the whispers.

"...where...where the hell is Sasuke?" Naruto dared, sliding his eyes from the girl on the engawa to Gaara's clenched jaw.

"No one knows."

* * *

They were playing hide and seek and without so much as giving him time she had joined in.

Sasu's voice ripped through the trees, echoing eerily from trunk to trunk as he counted down the seconds to Sasuke's imminent demise.

 _"One...two...three..."_

"Hinata, wait." His voice had a desperate note that he heard and he feared she noted. Breathless she rushed onward, past the hazel and further into the birches that scattered in skinny stripes against the mossy green of the rest of the forest.

"Hinata!" More urgent, his voice echoed and she spun, finger to her lips to silence him before diving behind the rising cedar spreading it's roots wide. It was a monstrous thing, the tree. And though it's trunk began thick, with twisting roots in lively green moss the trunk twisted where another tree had fallen upon it, forcing it to grow where it would have rather not.

The forest had claimed it as it's guardian however, and not only lichen smothered it but vines, covered in the flared skirts of white flowers that made the air feel nearly sticky with their sweetness.

 _"...four...five...six..."_

"Hinata!" Whispered, her name came out strangled and he grabbed at her arm before she dashed away, startled to find her tugging away from him. Feet tangling in the roots and vines she gasped, grabbing onto him to keep her ankle from twisting.

"Stop." Breathless he gripped her to him, searching for her face. "Stop. You have to let me talk to you."

"...no...Sasuke, no just wait-" She was panting as though drowning, body shaking as she closed her eyes, pressing her forehead to his collarbone feebly. "Just wait."

 _"...seven...eight...nine..."_

"Wait for what? Hanabi is bound to be frantic by now. There's no more time." Gently his fingers found her chin, tracing the heart shaped curve of her face until she was looking up at him with twin moon white eyes clouded with tears.

Somehow it was less terrifying, knowing it was finally over and he could stop hiding. The relief washed over him at the same time as he was suddenly aware of every drop of blood coursing through him, pulsing at the ends of his fingertips where his skin touched hers, feeling the tears running down her face.

He had intended to tell her. He had worried about the words he would use and the order in which to put them but in the end his thumb traced her bottom lip, sparking fire through her body as her eyes widened in realization.

The caress of his breath through his vocal chords was all he could offer when he whispered, "I'm so sorry," and kissed her as he always said he would not.

Out in the thicket, unknowing and free the children continued their game with giggles and laughter as Sasu called out firmly.

 _"...ten! Ready or not!"_

* * *

 _ **It's possible I will be retracting this chapter- a thing which I have never done but which I might in the light of morning because I am very uncertain about it being the correct version.**_

 _ **I'm really sorry if that's what happens.**_

 _ **Much much love,**_

 _ **inky**_

 _ **ps. don't ask me about the italics. sometimes when i have wine and i write at the same time i kind of love them? I dont know why**_


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